The Worst Witch 2017 - The Curse of Jumanji
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: One night, two young wizards throw a box containing a cursed 'thing' into the sea. Many years later, Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow, both third years at Cackles Academy for Witches go missing without a trace. 30 years later, Bella Hallow, Esmerelda's daughter and her friend Miranda Virosa, stumble across a board game called 'Jumanji', and they make a discovery...
1. Chapter 1 Prologue

Foreword - I was inspired to write this by watching Jumanji starring the late and brilliant Robin Williams, may he rest in peace, and by watching clips of the new Jumanji movie, and the Worst Witch.

Some of the ideas - being sucked into the game and being trapped come from across the mythos of Jumanji. I don't own either franchise, but please tell me what you think and I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"I don't see why we just don't vanish it," one of the boys said, making the other, far older boy, sigh with irritation. The eldest boy usually found the night's beautiful, as befitted someone with magical heritage. But tonight the blackness above, with the stars shining in the skies above, did little to comfort him while he and his friend flew alongside each other with a box in between them.

"Because it is magical, and I tried to deal with it already, and nothing worked. If those spells I used didn't work then I doubt the vanishing spell would make any difference on it," the elder boy said. "We were both in there for 26 years, Peter, and in all that time we could never get out. We have got to get rid of it. Now."

Peter flinched at the reminder, and he clasped the broomstick with his one hand, but the older boy could clearly see his friend's hand was shaking as it held onto the box.

The elder boy spoke a bit more carefully. "Don't worry, Peter," he said as kindly as he could. "Soon it will all be over."

"I hope you're right."

The older boy sighed under his breath at his friend's pessimism, but he could understand it.

The two of them were wizards, young ones who were presently studying at school. Both of them were formidable magicians, experienced with spells and still learning despite their young age, and they had a long way to go before they were qualified and seen as adults, and both of them had fine futures ahead of them. But despite their experience and practice with magic, they were still eleven-year-olds who didn't have experience in the real world just yet.

But they had both been through a strange and terrifying experience, one that had not only nearly cost them their lives, but they had seen things so terrifying they were taking these measures.

The elder boy tried sitting upright on his broomstick to give the impression to his friend that all would be well, but truthfully he was just as frightened and shaken as Peter was, only he hid it better thanks to the pride drummed into his very being by his parents. But not even his upbringing which had been meant to prepare him for the life of a high-ranking wizard could have helped him with what had happened. After he and Peter had been freed and they had returned to the real world, the one they knew and were familiar with, he had tried to deal with the….thing in the box, the cursed thing.

He had tried burning it, risking setting off the fire alarm spells placed on the school to protect the students in case of a mishap in one of the potions labs. He had tried to vanish it, and a host of other things, but nothing had worked.

Peter had been there the whole time, and the pair of them had tried their own spells on it, but like him, nothing had worked. The only reason Peter was suggesting they vanish it was because he still considered it to be their best option since there weren't any checks on what was placed into Vanishment, the magical realm where all vanished objects were placed. He liked the idea as well - without any checks, and because the realm allowed objects vanished to be returned intact, the chances of anyone else finding it was remote. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked. The thing was still in the real world, and as long as it remained they were both in danger.

They had considered taking it to the teachers who would be able to call for help, and it would be taken into custody so then the two wizards would never have to see it again. While that was perhaps the simplest option, they had been lured by the drumbeat and both had ended up in a cursed world, they didn't want anybody else to fall into the same trap. What if their teachers heard the drumming? What if one of the wizards sent to examine the game took it away for study, and some of their assistants fell victim to the sound of the drumming?

They would be trapped.

He and Peter had found life almost impossible in that strange and terrifying world, and their magic had failed to work the way it should, and they were limited by their use of the Craft, as though the laws of magic were in retreat. Under those circumstances, no other witch or wizard would be able to survive in that place.

That was why he and Peter were taking these steps to ensure no-one else touched the thing in the box. As they flew above the forest, the two boys stopped speaking as they concentrated on their flight and both valiantly tried to ignore the weight of the box, but with the way the pair of them were flying above the treetops, trying hard to concentrate on their flying with only one hand grasped around their broomsticks, they both used their magic to keep the box steady and high as they flew so they didn't need to use too much effort to keep it upright.

The two wizards were silent before Peter broke the silence. "Are you sure this is the best way to deal with this, old chap?" he asked hesitantly. "I mean, even with your family's contacts-?"

"I've been thinking about that. But if we chuck it outside the estuary, weigh it down with blocks of rock, then the sea should coat it up with coral. I've read about it in books," the older boy explained patiently; he'd already been over this a dozen times. "I know what you're saying, Peter, but while I agree we can put it into the Morgana vaults, whose to say someone won't try playing with it?"

In the dim moonlight, the older boy could see the look of worry on Peter's face.

The Morgana vaults were a research facility in the Magical world. They were a combination of vault not too dissimilar to those found in bank vaults or storage facilities like warehouses where witches and wizards poured over items collected over the centuries by magical researchers. There were always strange magical artefacts discovered in tombs or in lost magical villages and cities over the years.

The magical world, like the non-magical world, had gone through many turbulent times, so it wasn't too surprising to find magical people more developed around the world. They had built amazing cities, like Atlantis and a few in Africa, Asia, North America where the witches and wizards there lived as peaceful Indians, and over the centuries they had made the wrong choices or they had come into conflict with other cities with different ideas, and they had fallen into disrepair. The people's living in those cities had either left and inter-married with others, died out and were forgotten, or they travelled elsewhere, never to be heard from again.

Their cities, their libraries, everything about their ways of life were buried, but witches and wizards sent out teams of archaeologists, highly trained experts and specialists who went out across the world, unseen and undetected by their non-magical counterparts, though the chances of non-magical people finding one of the cities was rather low, especially those cities where witches and wizards lived underwater to find a new way of life without being bothered, since the magic protected them even if was warped by the passage of time.

The findings of the archaeologists were placed into the Morgana vaults. Legend had it that some of the most dangerous items were locked there by a group above and beyond the Magic Council itself.

While it was tempting to contact the council to have the Morgana vaults take the thing into custody and lock it away, they weren't sure what would happen if the thing's inherent magic interfered with the magic of whatever was in the vaults. The Council went to a great deal of effort to keep the contents of the vaults a strictly kept secret in case someone had the 'bright' idea of breaking into them and taking something inside without knowing what it would do, and the elder wizard of the duo was sure he had heard something had happened, but he wasn't sure if it was true or just a fairy tale rumour designed to make people think twice. All he did know was that this thing was too dangerous to be left out into the open.

Just like he wasn't sure if he wanted to use his family's influence to get it locked in the vaults anyway. While it would be easy, he didn't want to run the risk of other students being snatched by that thing, never mind anyone else.

No, getting rid of the thing was the best option.

Peter still didn't look happy. "How far have we got to go now?" he asked.

"Not far to go now. Be thankful we're flying, or it would be a long walk."

000000000000000000000000

The two young wizards followed the river all the way down to the estuary and out a bit further from the sea when the older of the two boys nodded after he looked around. "Yes, this should be good enough," he announced. "I'll hold the box up, you apply the spells to weigh it down in the water."

Peter nodded and he waited for his friend to lift a finger and mentally lift the box up and keep it steady, and he was just about to cast the spells when he stopped when he heard it, and the other boy stopped as well.

A low, rhythmic drumming. It started low at first, but it could be heard even with the box blocking the thing off. Then it grew louder in volume and tone, a sinister drumming that pounded through both young wizards' bodies. Both boys became paralysed with fear on their broomsticks.

"I-I can't," Peter whimpered, somehow managing to make himself heard over the beating.

The younger boy's whimpers broke through his friend's own fear. "Peter, listen to me. Listen to me! We have to do this. It has to be done, now. Right now. This is why I wanted to stop anyone else from finding it. Pull yourself together. After three, we both cast the spells to weigh the box done, alright?"

Peter nodded, reassured by his older friend's confidence. Using that as a crutch, he pulled himself together and cast the necessary spells. The box was covered with chains made from heavy metal, interlinked by bricks and lead weights.

Once his friend's spell was applied, the older boy looked it over to see if he could make it any heavier. Peter's spell was actually quite strong, and there were plenty of lead weights and bricks already. While he would have liked to add a few extra precautions, the two of them were actually quite close to the estuary, and the chances of a non-magical fisherman being able to lift it out were remote.

He was about to drop the box and cancel the spell holding it up when the sound of drumming started up again, much louder this time. Angrier. The elder boy out of the duo swallowed as he realised that the thing inside the box under all those weights knew what was going on.

The drumming seemed to say to them "You think this will stop me? I shall be free."

The elder boy was starting to think that he should have woken up one of the teachers, and gotten the council involved so then it could be moved to one of the deeper level vaults, but they had both come this far. What was the point of taking it back now? He tried to cancel the spell over the box and drop it into the sea. Unfortunately, the strength of the thing's drumming made it hard for him to concentrate.

He suddenly felt Peter's hand on his arm. "Focus," the younger boy said forcefully. "Let it go. You were right, this thing is too dangerous to just lock up, all we can do is dump it somewhere and hope no-one touches it again. Cancel the spell, drop it into the sea."

The older boy closed his eyes and focused his mind.

"I am a Wizard," the older boy whispered to himself, remembering all of those stories he had read all his life, of the great deeds wizards like Merlin had performed which only furthered the greatness of the Magical people. He had been taught by his father and grandfather to take pride in his being a wizard, and he had no intention of disappointing them. If he could receive a great mark in his Entrance Examinations then he could do this. "I can do this. I can do this," he hissed to himself, ashamed of his weakness.

Peter watched his friend with pity, seeing for himself that the curse of the thing in the box was getting to even his friend, who was perhaps one of the most confident and prideful students within their academy.

With a visible effort, the elder of the two wizards flicked his hands silently and the box fell into the sea. Peter flew closer to his friend, who looked relieved even though they could still hear the beating of the drums.

"It's alright, my friend," Peter whispered. "It's alright. We've gotten rid of it."

"I thought I could handle it," the older boy admitted, ashamed of his weakness.

"It's alright," Peter repeated. "I was frozen as well, the drumming was too strong. Come on, let's fly back."

The older boy nodded. "Yes," he agreed at once, delighted to have something new to focus his attention on. "At this point, I don't care if we're put into detention for being out of bounds."

"It was worth it," Peter said.

The two boys flew back to their school, but it was halfway there before Peter asked something that instantly had his friend worried. "What happens if someone finds it despite our efforts?"

The older boy turned slightly, his face a grim mask but in the dim lighting, Peter could only see the shadows of his face that gave him a more wraithlike appearance.

"Merlin and Morgana help them," he replied grimly, now already regretting his hasty decision to just dump the thing into the sea and hope no-one found it. He only hoped that by being weighted down by the sea and by those bricks, chains and heavyweights would be enough to stop anyone picking it up, but after what he'd learnt about coral from books after going on holiday to the Caribbean to soak up the local magical culture, he hoped the coral covered the box so if someone did swim down and took a look at the seabed, it would be so encrusted that it would be virtually impossible to get the box out and even if they heard the drumming sound like they'd done just now, the thing would be buried so far into the coral it would be impossible to get it out.

Grimly, the two boys flew on.

00000000000000000

Thoughts of the box and what it contained at the bottom of the sea would lurk with them for the next two years, but over time they gradually forgot about it though they would always carry the terrible memories of their experience for the rest of their lives. The two young wizards went through their lives, gaining their positions either inherited from their family or they entered a new position out of their own choice.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the sea, the box which was slowly but surely becoming a distant memory refused to go silent as the special but far ancient magic refused to be defeated; it had been locked in vaults before, it had been dropped into bogs, swamps, and had even been dumped onto a patch of quicksand, buried under tonnes of rock and much more, so even if the two boys had handed it over to the specialists of the Magic Council for study and investigation, it would have found its way out at some point.

Instead, the poor, simple boys had thought that dropping it into the sea, weighted down, would be effective. They were wrong.

No matter. It had once thought it couldn't escape the quicksand. And it had survived.

It would always survive. But it was just so boring that the people who crossed it thought that burying it would be the end of the matter.

Inside the box, deep within the thing the two young had feared coming out, there was a cunning intelligence behind it, and that intelligence wasn't in a hurry to escape. To do so would result in it losing too much of its energy, it had done that once and it had ended up entombed for a lot longer than it had hoped.

The creators behind the thing had imbued the magic with a simple command; to survive at all costs, using the experiences of whoever entered its little realm to survive. But the creators behind it had also made it able to evolve and to protect itself. The intelligence had been basic in its first few years, but over time it had grown. Now it was incredibly powerful and dangerous, but it needed people to use it.

In a way, the thing fed off the various experiences of those who were unlucky to encounter it. It was ancient, powerful, and it had fed off the experiences that the people who found it endured, and the intelligence had learnt that patience was the key while it concentrated on using its magic to find a way out of whatever prison it found itself in.

Sometimes the intelligence thought about its creators, even though those thoughts were fleeting, but they were there. It didn't even know if it had been created by a group of witches and wizards, or if it had been created by something more than humans. All it knew was it had suddenly existed to survive, and with the magic imbued into itself, it would live forever. Many people over the centuries had wasted precious time and energy trying to work out who they were, what their purpose was, what was going to happen next, where were they going with their existence. But the intelligence did not care about that. It only cared about survival. It had also learnt a great deal thanks to the minds of the people that crossed its path.

The intelligence didn't waste its time with such things. It didn't care why it had been created, it had stopped trying to debate it long ago because there wasn't anyone nearby who could communicate with it to give it some insights, so it had given up.

The intelligence had every confidence it could survive and escape. It had after all soaked up the experience of two young wizards who were nearing the very primes of their lives, and it had fed off it. It had grown again, just like it always did. With it being recently fed, it would be easy to fight its way out. But that was how it worked, wasn't it? After every new experience, it was strong enough to fight back and escape. Oh, certainly there had been times where its' requirements were not met by those who encountered it, so it would be silent, but that changed always.

The thing marshalled its strength under the sea. For ten years it studied the chains and the box that imprisoned it, and gradually it found the weaknesses in the metal and the bricks, and over the years if the two young wizards had managed to find the courage to swim down to the seabed to see if the box they'd dropped into the sea was still there, they would have found the chips in the box and in the chains holding it.

Soon it would be free. It had waited once for a century if it needed to it could stay down there for centuries.

But it would be free.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer - I don't own the Worst Witch or Jumanji.

Feedback would be nice.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Algernon Rowan-Webb, Spell's teacher at Cackle's Academy for Witches and only wizard on the staff, was traipsing around a Magical Market with keenly interested eyes. A Magical market like this one was similar yet different to what was found in the non-magical world, but there were differences. As a child, Algernon had seen many markets when he and his family had travelled the world - both magical and non-magical. Although he liked some aspects of non-magical culture, Algernon certainly knew he preferred the magical variety of markets simply because there happened to be more excitement and drama around each stall.

Some of the store sellers were showing off new mirrors, the latest models on the market (no pun intended), delighting in showing off the features to the new designs while others were selling secondhand mirrors to witches and wizards in passing.

Algernon ignored them all - he didn't need a new mirror, and if he did need one he wouldn't buy one here; he knew from experience that some of the sellers of these so-called 'advanced' minors were con-artists trying to make a quick buck by using their own magic to augment the capacities of the mirrors they had available to them, and they would soon wear off after a few days of purchase without their 'creator' to give them the strength they needed to keep going.

His eyes picked up on the sudden gleam of gold not far away, but there were dozens of witches and wizards in the way, and Algernon walked over to them out of interest, but as he gently moved through the crowd saying excuse me to a few of the wizards and witches he soon saw what was being sold.

It was a number of cauldrons, made from various metals like copper, bronze, gold, silver, and even platinum despite its rarity. Algernon realised he hadn't seen a stall like this for a long time.

He had met wizards who were better or just as good as Hecate Hardbroom when it came to potions, and they used different cauldrons made from different metals to pass different properties from the various precious metals to the potions to make them more potent or give them something that they simply wouldn't have a standard cauldron. Algernon's eyes scanned the prices, wondering if it would be worth buying such a cauldron for teaching, but he decided against it. The girls would learn soon enough if they hadn't already that there were cauldrons made from different metals which were designed to produce more specialist brews, but for now, they would make do with what they had already.

Algernon left the cauldron stand and carried on his way around the market keenly. To those who knew him, Algernon Rowan-Webb was something of a collector who enjoyed collecting odd little things, knick-knacks for instance, but he also liked collecting magical games to play, as well as books to read, and Chantress operas to listen too (he was a bit biased of course, ever since learning Miss Bat was a famous chantress, but he had dozens of likes to add to his collection).

A long magically enhanced telescope caught his eye, but suddenly Algernon's eyes caught sight of a stall selling magical games so he would never know what this new telescope was capable of viewing. As he walked close to the stall, he sensed something on the edge of his senses, and as he walked closer to the games he felt it growing stronger and stronger. With each step, his curiosity grew. He had never felt magic like this before, and he was wondering why no-body else was doing the same thing he was and heading over to this stall to investigate the source of the magic.

The owner of the stall was busy serving another customer so that gave Algernon plenty of time to see what was available. There was a new edition to Magical Monopoly where witches and wizards moved small broomsticks around hotels, buildings, dwarf mines, and tried to buy up potion ingredients and properties to make some money.

There was a game of Snakes and Ladders where players found themselves playing a game which would expand any room to make some space for the game and they would have to clamber up the ladders, and slide down moving serpents while rolling the dice. Algernon had been playing games like that since he was a child, so he didn't see much point in buying one when he already had them in the rooms he shared with Miss Bat.

But there was something that caught his eye. Like most adult witches and wizards, Algernon had learnt how to sense the magic. All of the magical games released magic, that was expected, but he knew those magics.

But this game….. There was something old and intoxicating about it, almost like it was saying "play me, play me - you don't know what you're missing….," and Algernon was curious about it so he went nearer and found it buried under a number of other games that he ignored as he tried to unearth the mysterious source of the magic. Once he removed the last of the pile, he found himself looking at what at first glance as a fairly ordinary looking game.

The first impression Algernon had for the game at first sight was it was clearly very old. It was a rectangular box not unlike those of other games to contain the pieces and the board within, but it wasn't the age-worn looking appearance to the smooth dark wood that intrigued him as much as the feeling of magic he was getting.

It was the name of the game that Algernon's eyes focused on, written in big letters while being orbited by pictures of animals and a safari hunter you'd have expected to have seen in Africa decades ago, with some of the original colours still there but had been chipped away due to age.

 _ **Jumanji.**_

"The game has been stuck with me for a while," a voice said and Algernon looked up and saw the face of the stall owner. The customer whom he'd served was long gone, and now he had seen the wizard hovering around his stall and noticed his interest in the game.

"I've never heard of it," Algernon said as he decided to make conversation and see what he could learn about this game.

The stall owner shrugged. "Neither have I," he said. "I've also tried to play it, but it's not very exciting. I played it with my wife, but there was nothing. Not a sign of magic, nothing you'd expect from a clearly magical game. At first, we thought that at the climax there would be some kind of result, but there wasn't anything. Can you feel it?" He looked at the game and shivered. "Gives me the shivers each time looking at it."

Algernon was mystified with each word coming from the stall owner's mouth about the game. That was strange, most magical games usually showed something off while it was being played, but there were games that usually built up to a grand finale so that explained why the stall owner and his wife had played it for so long.

At the owner's question, Algernon nodded, "Yes, I can feel it. The feel of the magic is what brought me here. How much do you want for it?" he asked curiously.

This was a superb opportunity for the girls in the older years to learn more about sensing the presence of magic. It was usually advanced knowledge for witches and wizards, but Algernon didn't really like the thought of using the tried and true methods when there were alternatives which were much more fun. But there was something mysterious about this game, something that appealed to Algernon's magpie maniac personality, and he really wanted to find out more about it by playing the game.

The stall owner was surprised which further served to increase Algernon's curiosity. "You want to buy it? It's not an exciting game," the owner said.

"I teach at a school," Algernon replied as he remembered how the stall owner described how this game didn't seem to respond like the a-typical magical game you'd expect, "maybe the game is meant for children. Besides, I was thinking of introducing games to the class to help students feel magic."

He was telling the truth. The best way to learn how to sense and feel magic nearby was to get some good experience. Granted, it might be tricky with this upcoming year. Cackles castle was still recovering from the effects of what happened with the Founding Stone. But maybe with something relatively small scale and uncommon, it would be straight forward to arrange.

"Fair enough," the stall owner replied apparently satisfied, though Algernon had the opinion that he was secretly glad to get rid of the game and he asked for some cash. Algernon handed it over to him, and after his purchase, he went around the stalls for another hour before he transferred back to Cackles.

00000000000000000000

"Hello, Dear," Miss Bat smiled at him as he appeared with his purchases. "How was the market?"

Algernon smiled back at the woman he loved. He was lucky that despite being turned into a frog and left at a pond because of Miss Gullet's greed she hadn't given up or moved on on him, though he wouldn't have blamed her if she had. Miss Bat understood his magpie mind, and she let him indulge in it since she sometimes received knick-knacks herself, and she sometimes got hold of materials for Chanting that she didn't know about.

It didn't matter if she, like Algernon, liked junk.

"Oh, the usual," he said, accepting a cup of tea from her while he put his haul on a table. "I managed to buy a few things, but I found something interesting."

Miss Bat's eyes crinkled curiously. "Oh, what?"

Algernon silently showed her the game.

Miss Bat studied it, feeling the magic instantly before she looked back up at Algernon.

"Apparently this game is magical, but the stall owner said he and his wife had tried to play it but nothing happened," he told her, "but I thought you and I could play it, and try our luck."

Miss Bat looked dubiously at the game again. There was something… odd, almost evil about the game, but looking into Algernon's eyes, so eager, she gave in. She had been working hard recently, but then again they all had.

She remembered the talk Hecate had subjected them all to after the truth of Miss Mould and what she had been really doing at the school, and as a result, there were stricter ties on the security of the school. The problem was they didn't really know what they could do to make sure newer teachers or teaching assistants were not part of covens.

Who would have expected Agatha Cackle to be the leader of a coven of witches who didn't follow the code? Well, actually when you saw at it, you could see it made sense.

Maybe a relaxing game would be just what she and Algy needed, though truthfully Miss Bat found the idea of a game which was clearly magical doing nothing magical as a result of each move a little bit dull. But maybe that was what they needed…..

A few hours later, Miss Bat looked at the game in annoyance, and looking at Algernon she could see that he too was annoyed by the lack of anything happening, but she decided to try to soothe his clearly irritated feelings.

"At least we tried."

Algernon huffed.

"What are you going to do?"

"Oh, I'll keep it in our rooms," Algernon replied. "If nothing, perhaps it would make a good lesson for the girls to sense magic."

Miss Bat nodded and watched as Algernon picked the game up and walked away with it to put it somewhere safe. Her face crinkled in thought, now that the game was out of her sight, she couldn't help but think that there was something evil and twisted about that game. That feeling had been present when she had looked at the game for the first time, but as she'd played she had felt that the game was somehow….. annoyed and frustrated with them playing it, though she couldn't grasp why, and she wasn't sure how she could bring it up with Algernon. She only hoped that Algernon's decision to buy it wouldn't come back to haunt them all.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer - Usual story, I don't own the Worst Witch or Jumanji.

Again, please leave feedback.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"I think I'm definitely improving my flying skills," Mildred Hubble thought to herself quietly as she flew at a moderately comfortable speed towards Cackles Academy for another year. Mildred was looking forward to the new term, but she knew that she was likely to see herself quite often in HB's detentions, though she wondered what kind of new thing would be happening this year. In the first year, she'd had to deal with Agatha Cackle and her lackey Miss Gullet three times, and the second she'd had to try to restore the Founding Stone after accidentally demolishing the East Wing of the Academy, which revealed the Stone directly beneath.

Mildred had been forgiven for that little disaster. She had spent an entire afternoon terrified Miss Hardbroom was going to come down hard on her like a ton of bricks, that Miss Cackle would have no other choice but to expel her for what she'd done, but she was grateful that after what Agatha had done to the school the year before most of the dark magic she'd used in the spell to demolish the school was still lingering, so she got to stay.

Mildred wondered what kind of mess she was going to find herself in this year, but now she was prepared to face it anew. Last year she had learnt her family was a witching family, okay so it had been centuries since her family had had magic meaning she was the thirteenth generation to be a witch, the first magical Hubble for centuries.

As she flew, Mildred grimaced slightly as she thought about the choices her ancestor Mirabelle had been forced to make and she remembered asking herself how she could have made that choice, but when history had almost repeated itself when Miss Hardbroom and Ethel's last effort to try to reignite the stone had failed (she had learnt from Sybil and Esme later on Ethel had decided to take HB's place, but instead of actually getting on with it, she had wasted two minutes making a stupid speech, and by the time she realised her mistake…. well, Ethel didn't have too long to dwell on it since she was frozen pretty quickly), and she was sitting down with the Stone in front of her with her mother's loving support behind her, prepared to give her own magic away, Mildred realised why Mirabelle had done it.

She had been scared, she had realised there wasn't an alternative.

But she was still a witch, thanks to Miss Mould. It had really hurt Mildred that Miss Hardbroom, who had spent an entire term demeaning and belittling the woman, had been right the whole time, that Miss Mould had gotten into the school under false references because she was a member of Agatha's coven and wanted to find a way of getting her out of the photo the Great Wizard imprisoned her in an act of poetic irony since Agatha and Miss Gullet had shoved HB and Miss Cackle inside a painting and turned the Great Wizard into a balloon.

"Hey, watch it-Oh, it's you, Mildred Hubble!" Mildred was suddenly jolted back into reality when she realised she had flown too close to Ethel Hallow, and she sighed mentally, hoping that Ethel wasn't going to make this into a great drama. "I might have guessed," Ethel went on, and Mildred closed her eyes.

"Oh, sorry Ethel," she sighed. "I was lost in thought."

Mildred looked over Ethel's shoulder and saw Esmerelda and Sybil flying on their own broomsticks. "Well met," Mildred greeted the other two girls warmly.

The older and younger sisters copied the greeting, and Sybil beamed at her. "How was your holiday, Mildred?"

"Great, mum and I went on a train to Inverness," Mildred replied with a smile.

The younger and elder of the Hallow sisters looked fascinated, and out of the corner of her eye Mildred could see Ethel's expression; to an outside observer who didn't know the middle Hallow sister it was an expression of disinterest as though the conversation was beneath her and her sister's notice, but Mildred knew the blonde witch better now after two years to know that the girl was anything but disinterested.

"Really?" Sybil gushed.

"A real train?" Esmerelda asked, the same tone of awe in Sybil's voice in her own. "All the way to Inverness?"

"Well, we went to Glasgow and Edinburgh as well, just to see the sights but we spent the majority of the holiday in Inverness," Mildred clarified with a smile, "but year. How about yourselves, did you two anything this summer?"

Esmerelda's smile faded somewhat. "Oh, the usual," she said, "our parents were delighted I've got my powers back, and completely uninterested that it was Ethel, not them, that solved the problem."

Mildred decided not to say anything since she knew how touchy Ethel could be when the subject turned to family and parents. When she had first learnt about the inheritance part of the Witches' code where the eldest would always be the one to inherit from the family, while other siblings if the family actually had them would get absolutely nothing, not even a speck of dirt, Mildred had begun to see one of the reasons why Ethel was so driven to succeed; she might not be getting physical things from her parents, but if she could again at least some of their respect and love, then it would be enough.

But while she personally couldn't understand how a family could be that way, she wasn't going to interfere though she hoped that either Ethel succeeded or she moved on and became successful in her own right. The problem was she was not sure just what kind of life Ethel would lead as the middle child, just like she was unsure how Sybil was going to be when she had left Cackle's herself.

But what Mildred couldn't work out was the logic of Mr and Mrs Hallow. She had heard Mrs Hallow basically say aloud in not so many words that her two other daughters didn't really matter compared to Esmerelda where the year before during that mess with her hair going out of control Ethel had said her parents talked and lauded Sybil and Esmerelda above herself. Mildred wondered if it was just another example of magical culture, seeing how Mrs Hallow was just a more malicious version of Miss Cackle's own mother only Alma Cackle had seen the type of person lurking under Agatha's skin and she had decided it would be a terrible mistake to let Agatha be anywhere near the Academy.

But the Hallows….They had had a whole year to try to find a solution to the problem of Esmerelda not having any magic, and when Mildred had heard from Ethel when they'd both been stuck to each other she had wondered why the Hallows, if they were as rich and as powerful as Ethel had claimed for a whole term while Esmerelda tried to tone it down, couldn't simply use their contacts to find someone who was either dying or ill without any chance of recovery who had magic and it wouldn't have made any difference if they had powers or not, or they could have asked the Great Wizard to find a prisoner and just take away their powers like Agatha's had been originally.

It wouldn't have been difficult, but the Hallows seemed to think if they either ignored the problem then it would just go away and vanish in a puff of smoke, or they expected that their posturing would somehow bring Esme's magic back.

000000000000000000000

Esmerelda could read the thoughts in Mildred's expression, maybe not as well as she could with her own sisters but she could read enough to guess that Mildred wasn't all that fond of the elder Hallows even if they hadn't really met each other and gotten to know each other. Her mother, however, had met Mildred twice, and Esmerelda shuddered as she remembered how her abusive mother had ranted and raged that her precious scheme had been discovered by a non-witch.

Fortunately, Ursula had calmed down later on so Esmerelda wasn't harmed by the woman, but she had been more huffy and pouting like a child who hadn't gotten the present she had wanted for her birthday. She just could not understand why her mother had decided getting Miss Cackle kicked out of Cackles was going to help get her magic back, but since she had often had problems understanding the logic of both of her parents….. Esmerelda sometimes just shrugged her shoulders and let them carry on with their schemes. She had made her mind up to get through life and get married, preferably to someone of her own choosing like her grandmother had, and have children while making sure she didn't make the same mistakes her parents had made encouraging them all in following their dreams. It was uncommon for families to have too many children because of the Code, but if she could have other kids she would try to encourage them not to let the Code bring them down.

Esmerelda had already decided not to let her parents rule her life even after she had taken their place.

She wasn't surprised to see the grimace on Mildred's face at the mention of her parents seeing she hadn't had the best of impressions of the pair of them. She had found out from Ethel, after a bit of probing, what her mother had said in Miss Cackle's office when the little scheme that got her booted off the Magic Council and she had wanted to throw Ursula out of the house. How dare she be dismissive towards her daughters, but there was nothing she could about it.

So no, she wasn't surprised at the grimace on Mildred's face but she was thankful the brunette didn't say anything, but then she knew if she did then Ethel would be down her throat.

"I'm just glad you're back," Mildred was saying. "Has there been any trouble, what with the Founding Stone?"

Esmerelda looked down. "We got a visit from the Great Wizard this summer," she whispered and then lifted her head to show Mildred how serious the whole mess had been. "He wasn't happy about what happened," she sent a look towards a defiant but sheepish looking Ethel, "but he accepted it, but it was Miss Mould's arrest which managed to mitigate the worst of it. The Great Wizard's learnt a great deal from her about the coven Agatha had founded, and he's used that evidence to arrest them so then they'll never be a threat again."

The four girls chatted as they flew towards Cackles and when they finally landed Mildred was delighted to once more be treading on terra firma and she took a deep breath as she realised she hadn't caused any problems. Hopefully, this year would go a little bit better than last year.

00000000000000

The game of Jumanji had been getting bored as the intelligence waited patiently. It knew thanks to the two old magicians who'd tried to play it the building they were in was a magical school. The game could feel the magic in the air, but there was something very wrong about it. The magical balance that was centred by the Founding Stone had been upset but it was put right very quickly, but it had been a close thing.

But the intelligence behind the game didn't care about that. All that it had cared about was the prospect of children, and in a magical school, there was no better source. It remembered the magical energy it had fed on decades ago thanks to those two young Wizards. Even without those two wizards playing it, the magic of the school had provided it with more than enough magic to grow a little bit, but the two wizards had given it the nutrition it had needed to survive for years even at the bottom of the sea and eventually breaking out of its imprisonment only to be recovered, and since then it had been trying to find more players. It had sustained the game and allowed it to grow in strength and keep it nourished for years afterwards, but now it's nutrition cycle needed to be replenished and younger people were the perfect source of imagination for it to work. That was why those two old magicians hadn't been able to play it.

The intelligence of Jumanji was pleased today. It could feel the number of children out there, ready to start a new year. The game had begun taking in small amounts of the magic that was present in the air to feed it a little bit, but tonight it would begin. With so many young children in the school, it would find some players who'd be curious enough to play it, and if it got more than the conventional number of players it usually got, then it was no problem; the magic of the game could easily accommodate a thousand players if need be, though four was sufficient.

Tonight, tonight it would begin.

0000000000000000

Mildred happily got ready for bed, dashing about her bedroom and sorting everything out while haphazardly getting her nightclothes on. It had been an okay day today, and for the first time, there was none of the drama that had plagued Mildred and the rest of the school for the last two years with the start of term. Nothing had been demolished and nothing had been confiscated.

Yet.

As she took care of Tabby's food and water for the night, Mildred wondered what sort of things would be happening this year; she was hoping, now it was out she had magical roots that life in Cackles would become much more bearable and that she would be given a bit more leeway during lessons though not too much. She was also hoping that Miss Hardbroom, despite her promise of becoming harder on her, would become more tolerant of her mistakes.

The knowledge of how to perform magic had been lost centuries ago when Mirabelle found herself trapped with the Founding Stone, now she had to get it back and it was hard enough she didn't understand the majority of the concepts behind the spells and potions. But Miss Hardbroom didn't like it when people made mistakes, she wanted a class of students who were as good or just as good as Ethel.

Oh well, nothing she could do.

Mildred felt she was getting better at magic now she had been here for over two years already, unfortunately, that was how she saw things from an optimistic point of view, but she sometimes wondered if she would ever be as good at magic as her friends. Thinking of Maud and Enid brought a smile to her face; aside from a few Mirror calls, Mildred hadn't really had the chance to really speak to them all summer, but now they were back Mildred wondered what would happen for all three of them.

One point of interest was that Maud hadn't restored her original appearance. Mildred wondered if the magical version of Hide and Seek was less about finding clever spots to hide and wait for the other player to find you, and more about using magic to hide as either other people or even animals, and she wondered if Maud even had the means of restoring her original appearance.

It didn't really bother her that much. In Mildred's mind, it wasn't appearance that really mattered, but what was on the inside. She had lost count of the number of times she had met a pretty girl at primary school who was, in fact, a nasty, condescending bitch. In that sense her mind turned to Ethel; she could see that there was a lot more to Ethel than met the eye, and while the blonde witch had barricades around her to stop people getting too close to her, Mildred had seen signs of a nicer and more accepting girl trying to get out.

It was true enough. Mildred had seen a kinder version of Ethel once or twice during her time at Cackles, but those moments were few and far between. Mildred just wished she could find a way to help Ethel through the worst of her problems, but she didn't know where to start.

Mildred went over to the bed and pulled the covers back and climbed in.

000000000000000

In another bedroom in another part of the castle, Ethel Hallow was lying awake in her own bed. Her familiar Nightstar was out of the bedroom, hunting for mice out there, leaving her by her self. Ethel didn't mind, she knew her cat would be back and besides Nightstar was a witch's cat, she could take care of herself.

Ethel was pleased to be back at Cackles, she wouldn't admit it to anybody else though Esme and Sybil probably knew since the three of them had a bond that let them basically know what the other was thinking. Besides her sisters felt the same way. Her parents had been delighted Esmerelda's powers had been restored, but the way they had crowed about it, you'd think that they'd been responsible for Esme's powers being restored.

Unfortunately, their good mood had ended when the Great Wizard had visited the manor. He hadn't been too happy that a Founding Stone had been used, but he had accepted it when she had given her side of the story, how she had wanted to restore Esmerelda's powers since it was the only way she could do it.

Fortunately, every cloud had a silver potion.

The Great Wizard let her off, but he had made sure the "this time" went unsaid.

After that, her parents' mood had shifted, and they went back to what they were like; in Ethel's case, it wasn't different. She had never been able to work out why her parents disliked her, ignored her, and treated her like dirt. Her mother had stopped treating Esme and Sybil with visits to the spa, the hairdresser, things like that.

Instead, the Hallow sisters were treated to tedious lectures about "not embarrassing the family," as if they were any better.

Ethel frowned. She had become cynical towards her parents, the past year after that time where her mother didn't care about her nor Sybil when she started that petition was a great example. Her mother might have claimed it was because she had a non-magical daughter, but Ethel still couldn't understand why she thought the petition was a good idea.

She had been annoyed with Mildred with getting her mother kicked off the Magic Council, but now she no longer cared.

00000000000000000000

It was time, night had fallen and the game of Jumanji was ready to begin. Reaching out with it's magic, that were like the tentacles of a squid looking to grapple onto a tasty fat tuna to rip apart, the game of Jumanji touched the minds of every child in the school and began the drumbeat that sounded like war drums from some Native American or African tribe preparing for a fight, or a hunt.

The game was uncertain how many of the young witches at this school would hear it, but it didn't care. If it gained three players instead of the average two, or even four, then even better but it didn't care about how many played it with this round.

All it wanted was to be played now.

It began the drumbeat and made the sound louder.

000000000000000000000

What was that noise?

Ethel Hallow woke up in surprise when she began to hear a sound that went right through her, she had been asleep and enjoying peace and quiet, but now she could hear something. Her bleary mind cleared and she looked quickly around the bedroom, trying to find the source of the drumbeat she could hear in her bedroom, sending a terrible fear right through her. But there was nothing there.

000000000000000000000

Mildred snapped awake and sat upright in her bed, startling Tabby who leapt up with an indignant and tired yowl. "Sorry, Tabby," she apologised with a wince, but she looked around the room in fear. The drumbeat sound she could hear had woken her up, and it had sent a thrill of terror through her.

She couldn't see anything in her bedroom, and when she went back to sleep the drumbeat's sound was still there.

000000000000000000000

The game of Jumanji was satisfied.

It had touched the minds of all of the girls, but only two had been roused by the sound of the drumbeats. No matter. Two were better than none, after all, and soon those girls would be playing it. It would begin tomorrow. It had the attention of the girls who had heard it, now all it had to do was wait for tomorrow and it would begin.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed.


	4. Chapter 4

Happy Halloween.

Anyway, this chapter is where everything begins.

As always, the Worst Witch and Jumanji do not belong to me.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

As she added another ingredient to the cauldron boiling in front of her, Mildred was once more thankful of the book Enid had smuggled out of her family library to send to her. Enid had found it by chance last year when she had been in her house trying to find something meaningful to do when her family came back from their holiday, but by then it was almost too late for the dark-skinned girl to pass it onto Mildred because term was about to begin, but she had given it to Mildred during their first week.

The book was basically a guide to potion brewing. It had been written for magical orphans who had no family of their own and who wished to pass the Entrance Examinations of various schools or for other magical educational tests they might have to face in order to become fully fledged apprentices in case a school opening was unavailable. But overall the guide had been written so the orphans could enter magical education and gain a well-paying job as they grew older and provide for magical society in the end. Mildred had learnt fairly quickly all of her peers from Maud to Esmerelda Hallow learnt about potion brewing early in their lives to prepare themselves for the entrance tests and to get through the lessons HB taught, and she had learnt from Maud that although their fathers may have a bit of a hand in teaching their daughters a trick or two about what they'd learnt potions, it was the mother who was basically responsible for teaching their daughters the basics of potions brewing, how to recognise ingredients and what to do and what not to do during the initial stages before they gradually progressed onto some more complex potions. According to both Maud and Enid, no magical parent who had a gram of common sense in their brains would teach their children some of the more complex potions they learnt while under Hardbroom's steely-eyed tutelage.

That made sense. Mildred had messed up a few of the complex potions thanks to her lack of experience with potions and with the ingredients she worked with while the girls were able to pass because they had the knowledge of how to avoid the hurdles that constantly tripped her up, and the effects were never good when something went wrong for her.

According to Maud who'd told her when Enid had passed the book onto her, her own grandmother had taught her a few first-year potions to help Maud with what was going to be expected of her when she attended Cackles. That explained a great deal, like why Maud was close to Ethel Hallows' level in the class. It might be considered cheating by some people, but Mildred was not one of them because her friend was not a cheater. She wasn't the type. Maud had gotten where she was today through hard work and practice. Okay, so she wasn't as good as Ethel, but that didn't matter.

It had surprised Mildred a little bit when she'd learnt there was such a thing as magical orphans, she had always assumed because she had heard just how close-knit the magical families were there was no such thing. But she was wrong. Maud and Enid both told her that although they were rare and seen as a burden, orphans did exist, and unlike families like the Hallows and the Nightshades, the places they lived in were much like a cross between a strict boarding school, orphanage and Victorian workhouse rolled into one.

According to her friends, the orphans were given a chance by the Magic Council to gain a place at a magical school, or at the very least attract the attention of a magician who could offer them an apprenticeship. How the system worked, Mildred had no idea. When she'd processed that particular piece of news about the magical community, Mildred had wondered just how fair that chance was; she had seen how Mrs Hallow had used her position to manipulate the Magic Council to force Miss Cackle out with a fake petition, but while she wasn't personally fond of the Great Wizard at times considering their rather rocky relationship, Mildred had never gotten a bad vibe from him. He was flawed like everyone else, a bit obstinate, set in his ways, traditional like Miss Hardbroom and sometimes reluctant to look at things in shades of grey instead of black and white but as long as there was proof he'd listen, but basically a good man. It made sense that he would want orphans to have the chance to become fully fledged witches and wizards like everyone else even if they didn't have a family to back them or their ambitions up.

The potion brewing guide had been issued by the Council to various magical orphanages to be used by the orphans to help them practice potions without the help of a family member who'd have learnt the lessons as a child from their parents, who'd been taught by their parents before them, though what the manual was doing in the Nightshades' home, Mildred had no idea. She wasn't going to ask either, the last thing she wanted to do was to insult or upset Enid. She was just thankful that she had the book to help her now. She kept it in her bedroom and she regularly consulted it to see where she was going wrong with her lessons so then she could gain a better experience with potions.

The book was outdated - it had been published in the 1900s so it was quite old, but Maud and Enid had both told her it didn't matter since the method of how to brew a potion never changed. Mildred eventually realised it didn't really matter since they were right. At first, she had been a bit upset.

Enid had told her the book was hers, and for that Mildred was forever thankful though, she was a little upset Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom had not bothered to get her a copy. But ever since she had been confronted by Miss Gullet and Agatha, and the twisted twin of her own headmistress had told her that witches didn't beg for help and helped themselves, Mildred had worked out why her teachers had not provided her with this help. They were expecting her to go looking for something like the precious manual, but what they didn't realise was she had been trying to look for a potions book that would give her some hints and tips on how to brew while keeping HB happy for as long as she'd been at Cackles, though none of the books detailed the process. They'd been written by people who had assumed the readers of their works already knew how to brew potions. They hadn't been written for someone like her.

She hadn't found any other books that could help and her friends knew it. She was just relieved that they knew she had put some effort into actually seeking out a guide to brewing potions.

As Mildred worked on her potions, she kept an eye out in case Ethel tried anything stupid, but fortunately Miss Hardbroom had made sure the girl had been placed on the lower tier this year because she was tired of the 'feud' as she and Miss Cackle called whatever it was Mildred had with the blonde witch, and she didn't want any further conflicts. Mildred was okay with that, though truthfully she had no intention of causing Ethel any problems so long as she herself could concentrate on her work.

Slowly adding one ingredient after another, Mildred really hoped this potion would be a good one for Hardbroom. She had gone out of her way not to be the cause or near the centre of trouble this year though the term was still fresh. It just wasn't worth it, but after the chaos of Agatha and the Founding Stone during her prior two years, she knew better than to tempt fate by now, especially after that mess in Hollows Wood.

She was hoping to pass her classes and get good grades and really shove that fact down HB's throat. But part of her wondered why she was bothering; HB and Cackle were bound to take whatever mess she happened to be involved in as an excuse to drag her mother back into the school. Mildred and her mother had both lost track of the number of times it had happened. The two witches would drag her mother into the school and they would basically tell her that she wasn't doing well at school, but nowadays Julie didn't care. All her suggestions of what could be done had been shot down one by one, but because of their non-magical background even when the revelation of Mirabelle Hubble and the truth of their family's history came out, Cackle and Hardbroom had ignored her.

Julie had basically suggested they take the time to take a few minutes or even half an hour to tutor Mildred, show her where they were going wrong, but they had told her it wasn't practical since if they did that then it would badly affect the girls in Mildred's year. How they had reached that logic was beyond the two Hubbles' since there were many moments during the school day and during the school week, not to mention the weekends, the teachers could fit a few minutes of their precious time.

When she received a curt refusal from Hardbroom and an apology from Cackle saying, again, it was detrimental, Julie had suggested a tutor.

Same thing. A denial, only harsher, from HB.

Eventually, Julie had given up.

It was especially hard on her mother. Didn't the stupid teachers actually pay attention to her mother when she said, repeatedly, she works in a hospital-?

Mildred cursed under her breath when the potion in the cauldron let out a gurgle, and she looked around hoping HB did not see; she had just been thinking about her mother, and the last thing she wanted was for her mum to be called in so early into the term. She closed her eyes and summoned her concentration, she needed to get this one right.

She turned her back on the cauldron to check on the recipe, and she mentally scrolled through the list of things she needed to do now. Unfortunately, she was paying too much attention to the recipe that she didn't notice that the potion in the cauldron was bubbling out of control. Too bad for her Miss Hardbroom did.

Mildred sensed the familiar shadow of the potions mistress towering over her long before she heard that familiar voice that always made the brunette haired girl feel like a lump of polar ice sharpened by a whetstone in a blizzard had slipped down her back. "Mildred Hubble."

Over the top of the workstation, Mildred could see Ethel turn her head, the blonde haired girl was not even bothering to hide her expression of sadistic glee of anticipation. She loved seeing Mildred being punished.

Mildred tuned her out and she craned her neck back to give herself some personal space. Miss Hardbroom was always best observed from a safe distance. "Yes, Miss Hardbroom?" she asked, wondering what the problem was this time and she let her eyes dart towards the cauldron. The potion was no longer bubbling.

"Do you always have your attention on your potion notes, do you never bother to look at what you're doing?"

Mildred wondered what she should say. She knew from experience Miss Hardbroom didn't like backtalk and she certainly didn't like students not bothering to reply to her questions. No matter what she chose to get out of this latest mess, she knew it was a no-win situation.

Fortunately, Miss Hardbroom seemed to be in a mood to answer her own questions. "You left your cauldron unattended to, you silly useless girl!"

Maud and Enid looked at each other when they saw the flash of anger cross their friend's features, but they knew better than to get involved.

To hell with this, Mildred thought to herself and she realised that it didn't matter what she did or didn't say to defend herself, she was going to get her point across whether HB liked it or not. "I was checking my notes to make sure the recipe was being followed closely," she answered. "I wanted to get this potion right."

Miss Hardbroom looked at her silently with that same cold, aloof, closed off expression Mildred really hated. Silently the potions mistress waved her fingers over the cauldron, and whatever was unstable in the potion was suddenly removed. Mildred watched the action unmoved and unbothered. She had seen Miss Hardbroom perform this act many times before.

"Keep a better watch on your potion, Miss Hubble," Miss Hardbroom instructed, and Mildred felt her heart sink. HB never called someone by their surname unless she was gravely displeased.

But Hardbroom was not finished. "See me after class," she said, and with that she turned away and continued to inspect the rest of the lesson, leaving Mildred behind to see what she could scavenge from her potion, though she asked herself what she could do now. She had deliberately kept her notes as far from the potion as she could so then the mixture did not destroy the notes. But now, seeing as she had no alternative, she pulled the notes close to the cauldron so she could study them.

As she worked, she lifted her head up and accidentally met the smug face of Ethel Hallow. The blonde witch was delighted by the dressing down, but Mildred sighed and looked at her own work, not really caring about what was going through Ethel's mind. Truthfully Mildred was not surprised the blonde haired girl had gone back on her word last year to become a nicer person after being embarrassed by what she had learnt about her ancestors, that they were a bunch of cheating, self-serving scum.

She had been dubious that Ethel would just change. It didn't work like that. It would have taken Ethel far too long to become a bit nicer, and that would have given her enough time to lapse back into the persona she was more familiar with.

To be honest, Mildred didn't really care. She would have thought it would be like living in the twilight zone if Ethel were nice.

When the class was over, Mildred packed up slowly and waited for the rest of the girls to leave so she could speak to Miss Hardbroom without anyone really paying her much attention. She doubted HB would be long since Mildred had another class after this one, and the teacher in that lesson was extremely difficult to please like HB was herself.

Fortunately, the potions teacher was waiting for Mildred to walk towards her. As she watched the shorter girl walk towards her, Miss Hardbroom thought back about their little chat last year, when the revelation Mildred and her mother did have magical ancestry had come out, and her pledge to go harder on the girl than before. Hecate had been looking forward to it, she enjoyed pushing the girls to their limits.

"This will not take long, Mildred," she said to the girl slowly, "do you know why I asked you to remain behind?"

Because you probably think I'm a useless girl, and you get off on calling me that just so you can feel good about yourself? Mildred thought to herself but she was not stupid nor suicidal enough to actually say it out aloud. "No, Miss Hardbroom," she replied, and she was telling the truth.

There were just too many possibilities why HB wanted her here right now, but Mildred was not going to try and play games.

Hecate frowned. She had hoped for the girl to show a bit of initiative, but she could see it clearly the girl was in a cautious mood. "I called you here because of your carelessness, Mildred," she decided to just get down to business and get it all out of the way so they could perform their next lessons quickly, "I could tell you were trying to complete that potion, but your lack of attention could have caused an accident. Keep that in mind the next time you use your notes to help you. You can go now."

Surprised and not really believing her luck the teacher wasn't going to punish her with something really nasty like she had in the past, Mildred left as quickly as she could so the woman wouldn't change her mind.

0000000000000000000000000000000

The game was pleased. Its plans were going as it had foreseen. It had released the drumbeat the night before, and it had caught the attention of only two of the children in the school. The game was only momentarily disappointed about that, but it had adapted since there was nothing else it could do to attract more players.

But the game had attracted the attention of two students at the school in this magical place. It had syphoned off some of the ambient magic to feed it and give it the chance to taste the magic released by the students at the school. If the game had been a particularly greedy human with a taste for fine food, it would have felt hungry, comparing the magic to high-class meals washed down with an extremely rare collection of wines, followed by a pudding with a high sugar content for good measure.

The presence of so many children in the school, releasing magic every second whether they wanted it to or not, had made the game hope for a number of students to begin the feeding cycle it needed in order to survive, but it had masked it's disappointment for a moment before it realised there was nothing it could really do at this point.

The best it could hope for would be if it waited for the two students it had felt react to its call to come to it when it released the drumbeat once more, and it would have them, but as time passed it would release the drumbeat to attract more players. In a school like this, there were bound to be others though the game didn't really care one way or another if the next players were attending at this point in time. It could wait for decades if it needed to, and the witches inside it would be fine.

As the hours passed, the game decided it was time to really begin. It had been patient for decades, it could wait for another day, but it wanted to get started. It released the drumbeat once more, only this time it increased its volume and intensity.

000000000000000000000000000000000

The drumbeat started up again the next day when Mildred and her class were in potions. Only the sound didn't just affect Mildred, but Ethel as well, and it started at perhaps the worst moment you could imagine. The class was working on a truly complex potion, one that Mildred desperately wanted to get right. She had spent weeks and weeks practicing her brewing skills whenever she had the time, but she had to put her anxiety she was just going to mess up once more to one side so she could succeed.

Mildred was currently carefully and slowly dicing some form of plant she didn't recognise, remembering that for some plants it was a good idea to slice them lengthwise in order for the plants' properties to truly make a difference. When she was finished, she took a good look at the recipe written in Miss Hardbroom's usual concise script on the blackboard. The diced plant she'd just made needed to be mixed into the potion after she had poured in a small amount of hydra eye juice, just three droplets. It had to be three since the warning next to that part of the recipe made it very clear if more than one droplet was applied, the potion's power would be amplified and it would turn into a completely different colour from the one HB wanted, and it would be completely useless. That made that part of the recipe the critical stage and she had no desire to mess up, not now.

Not when she was so close to succeeding.

Mildred took a deep breath while she looked over her ingredients. She had the bottle nice and ready, and she moved her hand slowly towards it like it was an imaginary hand grenade.

Unknown to her at the time, Ethel was also reaching for the little bottle of hydra eye juice Miss Hardbroom had placed at each workstation, only the blonde girl's moves were more practiced, more confident than Mildred's.

Unscrewing the top of the bottle gingerly, Mildred slowly squeezed the top of the eyedropper to suck up some of the liquid. She knew she didn't need too much so she stopped when the liquid was only what she estimated was a quarter of the way up. When she was finished, Mildred slowly moved the dropper over to the cauldron, and she cautiously squeezed the rubber top.

One droplet.

So far so good.

Mildred took a deep breath. Squeezed the top again.

Two droplets.

Nothing wrong seemed to be happening, and nothing was distracting her this time. She hesitated and looked around to make sure there was nothing that she could see about to make a total shambles of her work today and she was relieved when there wasn't anything. Feeling more confident and without Miss Hardbroom to bother her, and with Ethel too busy to get up her nose, Mildred felt better. She took another deep breath and she slowly increased the pressure of her fingers wrapped around the rubber top of her dropper…..

And then she heard it again, the sound of drums, louder this time. Mildred was so taken by surprise by the sound of the drums as their beat sent a chill of fear down her spine she lost the concentration she'd collected to make this potion properly and successfully. She was surprised when she heard the angry cry of surprise from Ethel Hallow of all people, who was looking at her own cauldron aghast with shock.

The sound attracted Miss Hardbroom, who went over to her at once, her face drawn taut with concern. "What is it, Ethel?"

The blonde witch's usually self-assured voice was shaking. "I-I don't know, Miss," the girl replied, her voice shaking with surprise. "I just…. don't know…. I lost my concentration on the dropper, and now my potion is ruined."

Mildred gasped, remembering how the sound of the drums had disturbed her own concentration and she looked down into her cauldron. What she saw made her eyes shoot open with horror. According to the potion's recipe, the hydra eye juice should have mixed with the potion in the early stages to make a liquid that was somewhere between green and turquoise.

Her potion was now black, making it look as though an octopus had shot a stream of black ink into the cauldron.

Mildred closed her eyes. Another potion class, another failure. Marvellous. She held up her hand, awaiting the inevitable.

Miss Hardbroom saw the hand and sighed under her breath before she transported from her current position and materialised right next to Mildred.

The potion mistress looked seriously at the steaming black liquid mess in the cauldron for a second before she looked at Mildred with an expression the third year girl knew too well.

Disappointment, only this time Mildred could not blame the woman; yesterday Mildred had been lucky to get off the hook, but she wasn't sure what was going to happen now.

"Well Mildred, are you going to explain what happened?"

"I was gently squeezing the eye-dropper to pour in the three drops, Miss Hardbroom," Mildred replied, thankful the teacher was at least giving her the chance to explain rather than just condemn her without at least giving her that right. "I'd already squeezed two drops into the potion, and when it came to the third I looked around to make sure there wasn't anything that may….distract me."

For a second Mildred wondered if she'd made the right decision throwing in that little tidbit into her tale since it may inspire Miss Hardbroom to ask her something in one of her scathing sarcastic comments. _"You looked around to make sure you weren't distracted, did you? And what could there be to distract you, Mildred Hubble? A goblin, perhaps, or a gremlin?"_

But fortunately, Miss Hardbroom nodded. "A prudent step," she commented. "Go on."

Mildred hesitated for a second, wondering if she should say she'd heard things. She was still learning about the magical world and she was not sure how the teacher would take her hearing things. In the end, she decided to just say it. "I thought I heard something, Miss Hardbroom," she said.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Maud facepalm and Enid close her eyes. Yep, I should not have said it, she thought, but it was too late now.

Miss Hardbroom looked surprised. "Really, and what was that?" she asked in that sarcastic tone Mildred really did not like.

Mildred licked her lips. "It sounded like a drumbeat," she answered.

"A drumbeat?" Miss Hardbroom said sceptically. "Are you sure you're not saying this to cover up your own incompetence?"

0000000000000000000000000000

Mildred lay on her bed later on, absolutely fed up with the day and she wished the ground would swallow her up, or better still swallow her up and spit her out again in another part of the world so she wouldn't have to deal with anything else.

After the mess in potions, word of what happened had spread like wildfire and now everyone thought she was insane because she had heard something others hadn't heard. Even Maud and Enid had been funny with her afterwards like they weren't sure what to say to her without her going over the rails, but they hadn't said or done anything either.

That didn't surprise her. While she liked both of them, no question or doubts about that, Mildred knew Maud and Enid were both bound by the same code as everyone else, so she knew better than to expect miracles by now. She was used to it so she didn't care. Getting that potions book did not really count in her mind; Enid knew she had been searching for something similar in the Cackles library for ages just like she'd been searching for any clue to how she was a witch whereas everyone in her family was not, so it didn't matter.

She sighed and closed her eyes, hoping for sleep to take her, but before it could there was a loud knocking on the door. Mildred groaned. She didn't want to speak to anybody tonight. She rolled over, almost squashing Tabby, to bury the sounds but they refused to go away.

"Damn it," she cursed at last in frustration before she got off of her bed. "Okay, I'm coming!"

Getting up off of the bed, Mildred sighed and walked to the door. She hoped it wasn't Maud or Enid, she wasn't in the mood for anyone tonight after the day she'd had.

She opened the door and she closed her eyes when she realised Ethel Hallow was standing on the other side. If she hadn't wanted to really deal with her friends, then she truly did not want to speak to Ethel.

Ethel read the exasperation on Mildred's face just as the brunette began to unceremoniously shut the door without a word. "Wait, Mildred. I want to talk to you."

Mildred stopped closing the door and closed her eyes. She had had enough of people telling her she was mad and speaking about her behind her back, the last thing she needed was for Ethel to stir the pot and make things worse. "About what?"

"The drumbeat."

Mildred had had enough. She began to close the door again. "Wait a moment, I know you don't trust me-," Ethel said, and Mildred only just managed to hide her surprise at the blonde's blunt statement, "but I heard it too."

Eying the blonde witch cautiously, Mildred studied Ethel for a second before she stepped back, clearly motioning for the other witch to enter her bedroom. As Ethel stepped past her, Mildred wondered if she was making a mistake letting Ethel in, but she decided to see how this turned out.

When Ethel sat down on the bed, Mildred had to fight the urge to yell at her. She didn't want Ethel sitting down because it hinted this was going to take some time, but she swallowed the urge down.

"Okay, you said you heard what I'd heard, why didn't you say anything at potions?" Mildred asked bluntly.

She was certain the girl was lying. It would be her style, but Mildred was not interested in playing Ethel's games this year. She'd had enough of it last year and the year before that. Mildred would never forgive Ethel for the way she'd organised that mess with Mr Rowan-Webb as if she thought it was a great big joke when she was trying to find out more about her family.

Who the hell did Ethel think she was playing a game like that? Mildred knew the other girl had been missing Esmerelda, but she just could not understand why Ethel felt lashing out was going to help because it wasn't.

Ethel looked at her seriously. "Why do you think? Unlike you, I know what would have happened if I blurted out that I was hearing things."

Mildred swallowed the sudden fury she was feeling at the barely hidden insult. This was one of the reasons she had problems with Ethel, she never hesitated to rub it into her face that despite finding out she had magical ancestry, she was more or less still an outcast despite having magic herself.

Sometimes Mildred wondered if she would ever get rid of that stigma.

"Okay, pushing my mistakes aside," she said while hiding her growing frustration that no-one was going to let her forget the fact she was still an outsider, "you heard the drumming as well? Do you really expect me to believe you?"

"It's the truth-," Ethel replied, but Mildred interrupted her. "You've lied to me before, Ethel. I'm in no mood for more games. What do you really want?"

000000000000000000000000000000000

The intelligence behind Jumanji was frustrated.

It had called out for its new players to come to it earlier, but they had been trapped in lessons all day, so they hadn't managed to get away. Jumanji was too old to really care about what the newer generations learnt over the years, and it was truly hungry for more energy. The two older magicians who'd played the game before the start of the new term had both been powerful, but the moment they'd begun to play, the game had refused to draw them into its fold since it preferred the youth.

It had formed a basic telepathic connection to its new players much like it always did with those who had played it, and through that connection, the game's intelligence had worked out that between the pair of them it would have enough energy to live off on for years.

The only problem was it could feel frustration coming from them both. The game's intelligence had little trouble making its way into both of their minds to determine what was happening, and when it did it's frustration grew. The pair of them were wasting time arguing with one another over the trivial matter of its drumbeat distracting them both in a lesson at a critical moment.

Apparently one of the girls had made the foolish move of revealing the existence of the drumbeat to her sceptical friends and teachers. The game was not surprised no-one believed her, but it didn't care about the tedious attitudes of human beings. The other girl arguing with the first one was trying to tell her classmate she had heard the game's drumbeat as well, but apparently, the two girls were rivals.

The intelligence decided that enough was enough, and so it started the drumbeat off again….

00000000000000000000000000000000000

Ethel had stiffened with anger when Mildred had interrupted her, but before she could release a retort to make this upstart be pushed back into her place, both girls stilled when they heard a familiar sound, only it was much louder, faster.

Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow were both completely different people, and that didn't even count when you looked at the two girls, but they both felt the same chill as the sound washed over them.

"Now do you believe me?" Ethel asked Mildred when she saw Mildred's wide eyes. A part of the blonde was delighted Mildred was becoming more cynical about the magical world, but this was not the time to get into that subject.

Mildred didn't bother responding to Ethel. This was not the time for the blonde to be too smug for her own good. "Where's it coming from?" she asked.

"Let's find out," Ethel replied.

"Are we sure it's coming from somewhere?" Mildred asked, not sure if she even wanted to know what the sound was.

"I don't know," Ethel snapped. "But I want to try and get a good night's sleep."

With that, the two girls left the bedroom. The drumming stopped, but the two girls carried on. The pair of them walked around the school. Occasionally the drumming would start up again, and they both realised that whatever was making the sound wanted them to come to it, though neither of them knew why.

Finally, after hearing a quick blast of drumming, the two girls found themselves outside of one of the old storerooms in the castle. Mildred rested her hand on the jamb, looked at Ethel, and she sighed and opened the door and the pair of them walked inside.

Cackles had several old storerooms which were actually used by the teachers and the students to dump stuff for later use, but the students sometimes took advantage of the carefree, indifferent attitude the teachers had for junk to hide any item they wanted to hide. The students who did this knew the teachers would only investigate if whatever was in here was dangerous, but otherwise, they turned a blind eye since kids always had secrets.

As the two girls walked into the room, blinking in the darkness to pick up on the meagre lighting before Ethel flicked her fingers and a nearby candlestick draped with cobwebs covered with dust mixed with melted wax that was hanging down from the rim, lit up when the spell restored the candle.

Mildred jumped a little when the light suddenly came on, but she nodded in gratitude. It was hard to see in this dim light, so the candle was a welcome edition. The two witches walked deeper and deeper into the room, looking around for any clue to what the source of the drumming was, but all they could see was junk.

There were old desks that looked like they'd been blasted to bits, some old chairs all piled up on top of one another before the drumming suddenly rang out almost impatiently and the two girls tracked it down and they both stopped in astonishment. There on the floor ahead of them was a wooden box with the word "JUMANJI" stencilled in faded white lettering on the top.

Mildred bent down and picked it up. "A game?"

"A magical game, but I've never heard of it," Ethel said.

"Maybe it's something so old and obscure, no-one's heard of it," Mildred commented. She opened the game. It looked like any other board game. There were four tracks leading away from the corners that looped around the game in white marble squares surrounded by ornately carved wood depicting African and Asian animals like tigers, lions, bears and crocodiles being hunted down by wild warlike tribes, and big game hunters.

She took the game over to one of the few tables that was still standing and she opened it up."Hold that candle up, there's something written here," Mildred said.

Ethel lifted the candlestick and both girls read what was written there. There was nothing really strange about the instructions, they seemed like anything a really common board game had. "Looks like when one of us wins, the winner shouts out "Jumanji" and it's over," Mildred commented.

Ethel had opened up a little flap in the boardgame, and she pulled out two pieces made of wood, both carved into the shape of an elephant and a rhino. "You're not seriously planning on playing, right?" the blonde asked mockingly.

But before Mildred could say anything, some retort, the two pieces glowed green and shot immediately to two corners of the game, shocking both girls.

"I've never seen a game do that before," Ethel said, but before the two girls could do anything the game started to glow green, and the same aura began to shine around Mildred and Ethel.

"Ethel, what's going on?"

"I-I don't know," Ethel replied, scared, too frightened to lash out or give some smart answer.

Mildred suddenly felt dizzy, and she began to squirm as she felt as though something was wrong in her hands. She looked down at her hands and she could see they were beginning to to dissolve. Mildred gaped and almost screamed with surprise, and she turned to Ethel and her eyes widened when she saw that the blonde was going through the same thing she was.

Mildred opened her mouth to scream for help, but before she or Ethel could do anything, scream, shout, or something, everything went black as she felt as though she were spinning down a drain…

00000000000000000000000000000000000

Jumanji was elated. The two girls were currently inside it's being, and soon they would begin to play the game. The intelligence felt like a man who was just starting a fresh, luscious meal after having nothing for hours, and already the game could feel the amount of raw energy it was receiving from the two girls.

The game didn't really care about how long it would need to wait for the next players as the timeline began to diverge, it could effortlessly restore the timeline to it's original course when it was concluded, like it had done so many times over the years. There was no way the two girls within could finish the current cycle, it would need to await others. The fact this was a school only made it better, with so many magical children in the classes, coming and going as the terms finished and ended, there were bound to be more than a few children who could play it. The game considered altering itself to support more than one players - it could do so, and it would increase it's energy many times over, so then it wouldn't need to feed for decades to come before it would need to feast once more.

It was not a guarantee; Jumanji remembered the last cycle. It had tried to attract the attention of boys from that wizard school years ago, and nothing had happened for years until it had attracted the attention of those two extra boys.

Still, it decided to try it's luck.

It had all the time in the world.

* * *

What do you think? Please leave feedback.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer - I don't own The Worst Witch or Jumanji.

I have moved this story back to the Worst Witch page because I wanted you all to see what I've written.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Bella Hallow watched as the towers of Cackles Academy grew closer as she flew out to the school, and she glanced over her shoulder to see her mother Esmerelda flying very close to her, her face drawn with lines of fear and worry. Bella sighed. To any "self-respecting" Hallow, being escorted by a parent on the first day of school was embarrassing, and while Bella herself was only slightly embarrassed that her mother was refusing to let her grow up by letting her come to Cackles, but truthfully Bella had been apprehensive about coming to Cackles.

Her grandparents had let her Auntie Sybil come to Cackles without a parental escort for her first year, but then again Triton and Ursula Hallow were both soulless monsters who cared more about their precious family image even though her mother was the current head of the family.

But Bella knew her apprehension to coming to Cackles had nothing to do with her mother escorting her to the school, but she quickly pushed those thoughts aside and she concentrated on her flight while she was dressed in her crisp and fresh Cackle's uniform. Her grandparents had been critical of her not being the new head of year, but Bella hadn't cared. Neither had her mother and aunt; both Auntie Sybil and her mother had told her that being the head of year was both stressful and it meant she had to constantly be the best.

Her mother had been the head of year until that incident with Agatha Cackle which had removed her powers for a year, but when she had returned to the school she'd resumed those duties as though nothing had happened, but her mother had never liked the role.

Esmerelda had always had problems constantly keeping up with her work which was just piled on her. While she had been "the best student Cackles had ever seen" she hadn't completely enjoyed it. She had needed to pretend to care to please people, but over the years she had learnt to simply not care.

Bella was snapped out of her thoughts when her mother spoke.

"Belly, I'm going home now," she said.

Bella glanced at her over her shoulder, tightening her grip on her broomstick to maintain her balance. "You're not coming with me?" she asked; she'd been in two minds about her mother coming with her, but she had been hoping that her mother would be with her for a little longer. It might be a bit babyish, but Bella didn't really care. She loved her mother. She was the best. The only other people in her family she loved being with her for longer was Auntie Sybil and Great Granny Josephine.

"No. I wanted to escort you to Cackles, but I knew it would be unfair if I took you into the school, though I dearly wanted to," Esmerelda replied, though she added the last bit through a whisper her daughter effortlessly picked up on.

Esmerelda's eyes drifted down. "Bella, I….. I want you to be careful; I loved Cackles, but there were dozens of moments where it was simply not safe. When I lost my magic before your auntie Sybil went to school…. it broke my heart. I had wanted me and my…..sisters, to be close. Always. But…..," Esmerelda looked down and closed her eyes. "Bella, I don't want you to care about that stupid crap your grandparents shove down your throat; I had hoped to truly keep them out of your life when you were growing up, but they forced the issue despite my protests. I want you to grow into your own person, you are who you choose to be. But you are my only child, and I don't want what happened to… to Ethel, to happen to you as well."

Bella licked her lips. "I understand, mum," she whispered.

"Good. See you later, keep in touch. If you have any problems, mirror call me immediately," Esmerelda looked up and the look in her face and the tears welling up in her eyes was terrible to see, though Bella had known her mother, who was incredibly doting and who had coddled her all her life, would cry no matter what.

"I will," Bella promised.

Esmerelda nodded, and her hands and arms lifted and then dropped. Bella could tell her mother was dying to hug her and possibly never let her go, but the fact they were both on broomsticks high up in the air, so many feet above the ground, was the only thing that stopped her from grabbing her and holding her close.

Too bad that didn't stop her crying.

Esmerelda's lips suddenly trembled and she burst out crying. "Oh, my little girl!" she cried between her sobs. "You've grown up so big, it feels like only yesterday I was changing your nappies!"

Bella was instantly scandalised and she looked left and right instinctively, embarrassed as only a Hallow could be, to make sure no-one had just heard her mother say that, but fortunately they were both alone. "MUM!"

"I'm sorry, I can't help it!" Esmerelda replied.

Bella instantly held up a hand after taking off a hand off her broom. "Okay, mum, ground rules."

"Ground rules?" Esmerelda wrinkled her nose in confusion.

"Yes, no crying. It's embarrassing. Secondly, no calling me baby or worse, that little phrase you've begun to use. Your little Belly baby," Bella said, shivering in horror at the mention of that phrase.

Her mother had started using that phrase a dozen times recently, Merlin knew how and why she had chosen it in the first place, but once her mother had discovered that phrase she could not stop it.

Esmerelda went slack-jawed. "Why don't you just tear my heart out?" she pouted.

Bella chuckled. Esmerelda was still huffy, but her lips quirked when she saw her daughter's smile. In moments the two Hallows were laughing their heads off.

"You'd better get on," Esmerelda said, chuckling as the laughter left her, though it completely left her when her expression became more serious. "Oh, Bella, if you happen to hear what happened to Ethel, please tell me and Sybil. It's been 30 years already, but we still don't know what happened to her, or to Mildred Hubble."

Bella nodded. "I will, bye mum."

"Good luck, and try to forget the pressure your grandparents have tried to pile onto your shoulders. You may be a Hallow, but let me worry about how well you're doing. Just do your best, and that's all I ask of you," Esmerelda said seriously.

Esmerelda had always resented her parents for the way they kept trying to poke and prod into Bella's life while they tried to turn the girl into what they considered to be a perfect Hallow; they had always thought they had succeeded with Esmerelda, who had been the eldest child of their family, but truthfully she had always resented them for not trying to make the effort to take a step back from their precious work and see what they were doing to their children.

Why couldn't either Triton or Ursula see they had practically ruined their children? Sure, they and other magical parents who had more than one child because of those rules in the Witches code which stated the eldest was to receive everything in the family whereas the children who came afterwards were to receive nothing and would have to find their own ways in life could use those rules as a crutch, but truthfully while some people might think Triton and Ursula had treated Sybil and her like royalty as they'd grown up whereas Ethel had been treated with nothing but contempt, they would be dead wrong.

If Triton and Ursula had treated her and Sybil like they were goddesses then they would have both followed magical tradition, which was Ursula should have taught her daughters when they came of age how to brew potions and how to understand them, instead of hiring a tutor to do it though in Esmerelda's case she'd been palmed off to her irate grandparents who had been furious with Ursula's cold dismissal of the magical traditions which had existed long since and during the days of Merlin himself.

In fact, if Esmerelda had to guess, then both the legendary wizard and Morgana herself would have been disgusted and embarrassed with the dismissal, but since there were no records of the pair of them she could not say if she were right, but the memory of her grandparents tearing her two useless parents a new one would last a lifetime. Esmerelda had always found humour in the event, especially when her grandfather had furiously laid into Triton for being a gutless coward and not bothering to teach the girls potions.

Personally as she'd grown older, whenever she had been forced to go through those stupid and useless competitions that in the long run didn't really help her with her life even if it had helped her improve her repertoire though that was all it had done, Esmerelda had found it ironic either of her parents could claim they'd had a hand in guiding her development as a witch, never mind Ethel or Sybil; they had forced her to learn potions from her grandparents when it should have been them, but while Esmerelda had loved her grandparents teaching her how to brew a potion, she had resented her parents and it had festered inside her like a fatal infection.

It hadn't helped when it had come for her sisters to learn potions. Even to this day, Esmerelda just could not work out why Ethel had expected either of them to teach her potions when they'd made it abundantly clear she was not worth her time. She still remembered the violent temper tantrum Ethel had thrown when she'd found out from their mother she was going to learn how to brew potions thanks to a tutor, but Ethel had quickly learnt to behave for the woman.

Sybil….. Esmerelda wished even now even if it had been so long ago that Sybil and Ethel had both learnt how to brew potions from their grandmother, but since their grandfather's death and Josephine moving to Australia out of grief, they hadn't had that luck as she had. But she remembered Sybil's expression after the tutor had left. She would never forgive her mother for being so callous and uncaring about the education of her daughters.

Potions was a vital part of a witch's education, and Esmerelda had been disgusted when she'd learnt Sybil had only just scraped by in potions at school because she had been terrified of HB. She had made it clear to her parents that she would do what they had refused to do as parents; teach her children how to brew, and she had.

She hadn't done it by bullying them. She had done it carefully and patiently; her daughter knew only too well when to listen to her and for that she was thankful. She was also pleased Sybil was on hand to help.

"I will, mum" Bella's voice broke through the elder Hallow's thoughts, though Esmerelda was glad of it. "Will Prudie be okay?" she added.

Prudie, or Prudence, was Bella's younger sister. Esmerelda had needed to work hard with both of her daughters to make them both see that although the code had guided them and their family, and the lives of every witch and wizard out there, that did not mean she could not love them both.

At least her approach was better than her parents.

Esmerelda nodded. "Definitely," she said before she looked at the time, "Broomsticks. You'd better go Bella, you don't want to be late."

"Bye mum," Bella nodded and waved, and her mother waved back as she flew away though she kept stopping to look back before Bella could no longer see her, so Bella flew on towards the castle.

When she arrived at the school she hovered over the courtyard for a moment before she landed slowly with the practiced moves of a professional flyer. Bella looked around and she spotted a few other girls whom she had seen at the Entrance Exam so she gravitated towards them because she had no idea what to expect.

Ahead of the crowd, dressed in the traditional robes of the magical kind complete with black cloaks and pointed hats were a group of adult witches and there was only one wizard. Bella eyed the teachers silently whilst she looked around and her eyes brightened when she spotted her best friend, Miranda Virosa, whom she'd met during the Entrance Exam.

Miranda didn't notice the blonde witch approaching her, she was breathing in and out nervously as she fidgeted. Miranda reminded her of Aunt Clarice, one of her Aunt Sybil's best friends - but Miranda was nothing like Clarice. She was a lot more uncertain than confident but she was, like Miranda, wearing a purple belt around her waist showing that she had done very well during her Entrance Exam though she was terrified of what awaited her.

"Well Met, Miranda," Bella greeted her, raising her hand to her forehead and bowed.

"What?" Miranda jumped and blinked in horror, realising her friend was there. She very quickly returned the greeting before she apologised. "I'm sorry, Bella. I was just waiting."

"It's okay," Bella smiled, hoping her cheerfulness was masking her own apprehension of her first day. "I'm nervous as well. We'll be okay."

Miranda smiled back uncertainly, but before either girl could say anymore a voice spoke out, a voice that sent a chill down the backs of every girl.

"Silence!" The speaker was a tall, bony witch.

"Thank you, Miss Hardbroom," Miss Cackle thanked her deputy headmistress before she smiled at the crowd of her students, though Bella could see a shadow under the eyes of the woman. It had been thirty years since the disappearance of two schoolgirls without any trace, though Bella had no idea what the woman or her teachers had gone through over the years though she guessed the investigation into the disappearance of those girls had probably exonerated them though it had left a terrible black mark on their records.

Though the woman had clearly managed to get over it, the shadow of what had happened was still there.

Miss Cackle began her speech. "Welcome all of you. For our new students, welcome to Cackles, and I hope that you enjoy your time at Cackles Academy. For our old students, welcome back."

"Please note all of you," Miss Hardbroom interjected making Miss Cackle look at her irritably, "we do not tolerate any childish games at this school. You are all here to learn the subtle arts of the Craft, and we expect you to take those studies seriously."

"Yes, thank you for that, Miss Hardbroom," Miss Cackle gave her deputy a look, but her face remained stony and serious. "All of you in the upper years are already aware of the security measures placed on this school, but for the new first years let me tell you what they are. Thirty years ago, two students disappeared and they have not been seen since. As a result, this school has a number of spells on it to ensure your safety. Among them are spells to ensure any witch or wizard who transfers in or out of the castle when they are not allowed will instantly be imprisoned. Be warned - as Miss Hardbroom has just warned you, we do not tolerate childish behaviour. But more importantly, if you try to run away, we will know about it. Do not try our patience by trying to run away."

Bella was surprised that Miss Cackle would mention the disappearance of two students so openly, but she imagined it was designed by the headmistress to make sure every student knew that if anything happened the staff would know it. She hadn't known about the measures until now, and not even her own mother knew about it.

But as she stood among the crowd, ignoring the mumbled chatter amongst the first years, she went over what Miss Cackle had just said. It was logical for the teachers and the Magic Council to believe those girls had run away - what else could it be? - but it had been thirty years and what had happened to them was one of the largest mysteries in the last century. It also made sense the teachers would make it perfectly crystal clear that they'd learnt their lessons and had prepared for it.

But as Miss Cackle's face brightened and she talked, Bella was barely listening because there were a few important questions on her mind.

Where was her Aunt Ethel?

What had happened to Mildred Hubble?

Had they been kidnapped? Miss Cackle had stated there were spells placed on the school itself to prevent the potential kidnapping of students, so they were prepared, but was it as simple as that?

Bella wished she knew. It would really bring closure and make her mother and her aunt feel much better.

* * *

Until next time.


	6. Chapter 6

I don't own either Jumanji or the Worst Witch.

Please tell me what you think. I am pleased you are enjoying the story.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Miranda was studying in her bedroom. It was only the first day of term, but the first year girls had already been given tonnes of work to do by the teachers. She sighed, wishing that she had her cat, but the school rules said the first years wouldn't get their cats for another day or so. She couldn't wait to have her own familiar to cuddle and pet; her mother's cat was okay, but a witch needed to have a familiar, she couldn't just use her mother's cat for the rest of her life and she had no intention of it.

Throwing the book she was reading back on the rickety desk, Miranda sat back and slipped her glasses off of her face and put them on the desk for a moment so she could comfortably rest her eyes for a second when there was a knock on the door. Miranda jumped at the sound, wondering if it was one of the teachers, and she quickly put her glasses back on and stood up so she could at least look presentable. In all that time the knocking did not stop.

"Yes, come in," she called.

The door opened and Bella Hallow walked back in. The blonde witch had a smile on her face as she looked at her friend, and Miranda closed her eyes for a moment. "Merlin, B," she whispered. "You scared me."

Bella's smile disappeared for a moment and she glared back at her friend for a second, but it quickly returned.

"Who did you think it was, Miss Hardbroom?" Bella chuckled.

"Oh, please don't joke about that," Miranda begged. Like nearly everyone else at the school, she was terrified of HB. "So, what's going on?" Miranda asked.

"Not a lot, just wanting to see how you were settling in," Bella said, sounding remarkably like her mother.

Miranda smiled. One of the downsides to her childhood was she hadn't really mixed much with other children even though they had allowed it. Her parents had pushed for her to be one of the best witches of her generation, which was not unusual since more and more people were pushing their children to become that much better.

Although her parents had pushed for her to study more than she would have liked, Miranda had had a few good friends growing up, but the majority of them were sent off to other magical schools and not Cackles. It was sad really, but it made sense; ever since the loss of those students three decades ago, more and more people were concerned about the loss of their own children despite the security measures, the Great Wizard had needed to step in to reassure everyone about the safety of the school. Miranda could see their point though she knew better than to voice them to her friend. Bella may have been lovely, but she was still a Hallow, and she had their temperament, not to mention their glare that made you feel as if you were being chopped to pieces with a chainsaw from the inside.

But truthfully she wasn't scared of being in Cackles. The school's reputation had suffered quite a bit, but it said a great deal about its age and its general prestige it had managed to recover thanks to the new security placed on the school. In fact, she was excited to learn all she could about magic despite knowing a good deal about it, with her speciality being in healing spells though she wasn't sure yet if she wanted to make it into a career. She was young, she had loads of time to make those choices, and since her family weren't completely rich, just well off she wasn't being pressured into taking over and managing a business like Bella probably was even if the blonde was exceptionally good at masking her feelings.

"I'm doing okay, thanks for asking," Miranda smiled. "What about yourself, I mean considering….?"

Bella's smile faded a little as her expression became more solemn. She knew only too well what her friend was asking, but she wasn't offended. "I think I'll be okay," she admitted quietly before she looked around as if hoping to see her lost auntie somewhere in the shadows of the dusty cobwebs left behind over the years.

"This room could do with a clean, but then again they all could," she commented hoping to change the subject away from an aunt she had never known in her life.

Miranda sighed mentally at the subject she'd brought up, but she was just relieved her friend hadn't taken it wrongly while she looked through the still open door to her bedroom, though she wasn't bothered.

"I don't know if I'll keep them," she admitted before remarking dryly, "I might leave them here to show that a witch lives here."

Bella smirked at the sarcasm though there was a touch of definite seriousness to Mirandas' reply. "Yeah, me too."

Both girls laughed only to stop as two older girls stepped into the room. The two First years tensed slightly, but the girls were both smiling in a friendly manner. One of the girls had dark skin and was more willowy than her friend, who was a chubby girl with her hair in a bunched ponytail who was looking at Miranda and Bella through a pair of glasses, and unlike the first years, their belts were yellow rather than purple.

"Hello," the chubby girl said with a smile.

"Hi," Bella said slowly as she wondered what the two girls wanted.

Her tension must have been visible since the second girl smiled at them as well. She had the smile of a prankster. "Don't worry, we don't bite. Much."

"Tasha!" the chubby girl hissed, making Bella and Miranda glanced at one another with a grin.

"What?" The dark skinned girl grinned at her friend innocently, though the effect was ruined by the insincere look in her eyes that made Bella think about some devil-may-care performer who didn't really care about his health unless he performed his art. But the grin disappeared as the dark-skinned girl turned to the first years. Neither Bella or Miranda liked her expression because they couldn't work out what she was thinking.

"Anyway, how are you settling in?"

"We're doing okay, thanks for asking."

"Sorry, but who are you?" Bella asked tilting her head slightly as she studied the girls.

The chubby girl chuckled sheepishly. "Oh, sorry," she apologised. "My name is Morgan Spellbody."

"I'm Tasha Nightshade," the dark-skinned girl added.

Bella nodded. "Hold on, are you related to Enid Nightshade, the owner of Nightshade Pranking Spells?"

Tasha grinned and nodded humbly, or at least that was what the two first years thought it was meant to be, but the effect was ruined by the older girl's expression. "The same. My mother was a student here, and when she grew up she had problems working out what she wanted to do. She didn't want to follow my grandparents as entertainers, so she decided to open her own business. It took her a few years, but she made it work."

"Don't we know it," Morgan rolled her eyes.

Tasha shook her head and lowered her voice in a stage whisper though Morgan could hear it though Tasha certainly didn't care. "She's still sore because I used one of my mothers' pranks on her."

"Yeah, and my bottom was itchy for a year!" Morgan yelped at her friend in outrage as she looked at Tasha with a long-suffering look while ignoring the giggling from the two first years.

"It wore off, didn't it?" Tasha asked looking at her as though she couldn't see the problem.

"You try excusing that when you can't sit down with fidgeting for hours on end," Morgan glared. Bella had to give the girl credit for the glare, it was not as impressive as the Hallow's own patented glare though it was still nonetheless impressive.

Tasha rolled her eyes but she looked around the bedroom with a solemn expression.

"What's wrong?" Miranda asked, sensing the change of mood.

Tasha sighed, no longer looking like a prankster but someone deeply serious. "I'm just amazed that the teachers have the courage to put anyone in this bedroom," she said.

Morgan looked quickly at her friend. "You know how many first years there are. There are more here nowadays than there have been for the last few years," she said quickly.

"Why, what's wrong with this room?" Miranda asked curiously with a vague sense of worry. Bella's expression was a near identical match.

Tasha and Morgan shared a glance before they turned to the two eleven-year-olds. "You mean you don't know?" Morgan whispered, looking between Bella and Miranda like a mother worrying about their baby taking their first steps or riding on her first broomstick.

"Know what?" Miranda asked impatiently, wondering if some former student had died or left a ghost spell on the room which imprinted her personality and magic on that of the castle to haunt any unsuspecting witch who made this room her own in the future. If it was she would hit the cauldron.

Tasha sighed and looked down at her feet for a moment before she looked back up at her seriously. "You're going to find this out eventually, but okay," she said. "You know how thirty years ago two girls went missing, yes?"

Miranda nodded while Bella sighed. "I should," she replied. "my mum and my aunt never got over it."

"Your mum and your aunt?"

"My name Bella Hallow. Ethel Hallow is my aunt," the young blonde girl explained.

"Hallow? Who is your mother?"

"Esmerelda," Bella said wondering what they were getting at.

"Our mothers knew your mother and your sisters," Morgan said before she admitted, "they have some very….colourful stories about Ethel."

Bella knew these two girls and who their mothers were. "Your mothers were Mildred Hubble's friends," she said. It wasn't a question. She knew enough about that point in her mother and aunts lives to know that.

"Yes," Morgan replied, not even denying it.

"This is Mildred's bedroom."

Miranda started to shake. "This… this is Mildred Hubble's bedroom?" she squeaked in fear.

Bella started to shake as well. Witches and wizards were notoriously superstitious; you needed to be when you worked with magic and with concepts and events ordinary non-magical human beings were incapable of handling. The thought of this being the bedroom of a missing girl's bedroom had both eleven-year-olds fearfully wondering if the lost third-year girl was truly missing.

What if she had been transformed into a ghost, or into a vampire?

"Yeah," Morgan said with a worried look at the two suddenly very terrified first years. She knew why they were frightened, and truthfully she was annoyed with the teachers for being so apathetic to this rooms history when it should have been sealed off long ago so this kind of reaction could be avoided. But it looked like the teachers had been more concerned with keeping the school going to think of psychological things like that.

"Don't worry," Tasha said reassuringly. "These no imprinting spell in here. It was checked over long ago."

Morgan crinkled her gaze at her friend suspiciously, wondering if she was pranking the girls and setting them up for a terrifying scare later. "Are you sure?" she asked sceptically.

"Yeah, and your scepticism is not appreciated, Morgan," Tasha retorted before she turned to the two other girls. Her gaze softened. "I'm sorry to spring that surprise on you, but you'd have found that out eventually. It's better to know now rather than later."

Miranda appreciated the apology just like she appreciated the heads up, and she could definitely agree with the older girl about that point. There were bound to be a few kids who would not hesitate one little bit to taunt her about it and frighten her even more.

"Thanks," she said, though what else could she say ("Thanks for telling me my bedroom is home to a ghost," or something like that) without sounding like a stupid kid. Instead, she settled on something different.

"Did your parents know Mildred, then?" she asked, already knowing the answer but she just wanted to get everything going.

It may have been a really stupid question, but Miranda could not think of anything else to ask. Instead, before either of the teenagers could respond, Bella interjected. "My aunt Sybil and my mother told me their mothers were friends with her."

The two girls agreed.

Miranda leaned forward. "Why do you think they ran away?"

Morgan sighed. "Our mothers don't think they did," she answered before carrying on quickly. "I don't know about Ethel Hallow, but our mothers would have known if something was bothering Mildred."

"She tried to run away before during her first year," Tasha explained. "Our mothers were at each others' throats and giving her problems, but what made it worse were the teachers. They were putting her under a lot of pressure, and eventually, it became too much. She was talked out of leaving by a grateful teacher, and she stayed on."

"But even if she had run away from school, she would have gone straight home to her mother. They were close and she wouldn't have abandoned her mum, not without letting her know if she was okay," Morgan said.

Tasha shook her head sadly. "It just does not make sense," she whispered before she turned to Bella, her gaze sympathetic. "I can imagine it makes little sense to your family either?"

"No. I know my aunt wasn't happy because of my grandparents," Bella said hoping the two teenagers did not ask too many questions about the situation with Triton and Ursula Hallow, it went into territory neither she nor her mother or aunt wished to think about never mind speak about, "but she seemed okay during that year."

"What I don't understand is why everyone thinks they were kidnapped?" Miranda looked between her friend and teenagers with a confused expression.

Bella glared at her friend for a second before she sighed and looked away, annoyed with her friend's ability to work it out for herself. But it was Tasha who explained it for the bespectacled girl.

"It's not as simple as that. The Great Wizard explored dozens of possibilities. The school was searched from top to bottom, and I mean searched," the dark-skinned girl said, glancing at Morgan pointedly for help. Fortunately, the other girl knew her best friend's expressions.

"My mother still has vivid memories of the school being searched; books, objects, animals, all of them checked and double-checked in case Mildred and Ethel had turned themselves into animals. It had happened before during their first year, and magic was certainly used between them in their second," the chubby teenager said.

Bella looked down. She had heard the stories herself. The feud between her aunt and Mildred Hubble had been told to her a long time ago. But Morgan was telling her something she knew about already. She knew from her mother's stories (when she could understand Esmerelda when the older Hallows' tears and sobs didn't make deciphering her story difficult) that the school had indeed been torn apart to find the girls.

The Great Wizard knew only too well the feud between them, but their search turned up nothing and the girls had not been found. Even more surprising was there were no missing broomsticks. Their things were still in their bedrooms, their cats were still at the school. If that was not telling no-one knew what wasn't. No witch in their right mindset would leave their cats behind. To a witch, their familiar was sacred and they would never leave them behind.

There were three theories about where Mildred and Ethel were. The first was they had been transformed into something by a particularly nasty student and hidden somewhere, but that was not likely. The school had been torn to pieces and no stone was left untouched by the Great Wizard's people.

The second theory was the two girls had simply decided to run away. It was one of the most favourite theories even if it made little to no sense because the girls had not taken their familiars with them.

But so far the most logical theory was the girls had been kidnapped. It was the only thing that made the most sense. It explained why the girls had not been seen for three decades, though where they'd had been taken was a question in itself. It explained the reason why the girls had left everything they owned behind in the school. The kidnapping theory was one of the reasons why the Magic Council had spent a lot of time and energy over the years increasing security in every school and to find out if any kidnappers had stolen any children. The Hallows no longer had a seat on the council after Ursula Hallow's stupid stunt to make Miss Cackle pay for the loss of Bella's mother's magic instead of trying to find a solution to the problem herself like a responsible parent, so Bella had no idea what had been found out, but since no word had come out about where the girls were she guessed their efforts had failed.

Unfortunately, Tasha's thoughts mirrored Bella's. "The Magic Council have not found anything for three decades. I don't know if they're going to find anything now."

The other girls agreed with her though Bella had a sinking feeling in her chest.

"I don't know if they will find something," Morgan said solemnly, looking between her friend and the two eleven-year-olds sadly. "Each year, Julie Hubble loses hope."

Tasha sighed and looked down.

"Julie Hubble?" Miranda repeated confused.

"Mildred's mother. She misses her daughter. She went ballistic when Mildred was reported missing, and she made sure the teachers knew it," Morgans' face made it clear there was a story behind that, but she was not going to tell it. "But each year she loses hope. She tried looking for her daughter in the non-magical world just in case, but she's heard nothing since. My mother and Enid have done their best to help her, but there's only so much they can do."

Hearing that made Bella remember those frequent fits her mother had had when she was growing up. When her mother had escorted her to school, she had said Bella was her only child, but she had meant her only child at Cackles. Bella knew that. She also knew that if anything happened to either her or her little sister in this school her family had been attending for generations Esmerelda would probably go mad.

Bella only wished nothing did happen.

* * *

The game of Jumanji was stirring. It had been consolidating itself and its strength for a long time, sending out its call when it sensed the arrival of new students but for the past thirty years no-one had heard it and came to play it. For the game, this was a double-edged sword since it allowed the game the time to gather energy from its current players who were playing it and harvesting the rich magic from the school itself.

It was just annoying only two witches were playing Jumanji. The game itself was considering re-making and re-forming itself on a magical level so then it would become able to take on more players at once but for now, it would have to put those plans away until this cycle was completed.

Jumanji was patient. It knew in time its call would summon more players to complete this cycle and replenish its energy before it needed to be played once more.

Now the game would need to stretch its influence out a little. It was not too worried despite its annoyance no-one had been able to hear it yet, it would wait for as long as it could, and besides with the energy it was surrounded with by the school and the students and the teachers and with the two girls, now young women, playing it, Jumanji could potentially last for years before it found its next players.

It prepared itself to send out the summoning drumbeat.

* * *

Until next time, and that is when things will heat up..


	7. Chapter 7

Merry Christmas everyone.

The first chapter in a double-bill of this story. I hope you enjoy my Christmas presents in the form of new chapters and one-shots.

Please leave feedback.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"Well done, Miss Hallow," Miss Hardbrooms said as the potions mistress strolled around her classroom, inspecting every single cauldron as she did, "you are almost as good as your mother when it comes to potions, though you still have a way to go."

Bella said nothing as she worked, only just managing to hide her eye-roll in the process, though it did occur to her that if this was HBs' way of being encouraging then she didn't want to know what she was like when she was denigrating towards her students. The small blonde witch was relieved when the potions mistress moved on to criticise or to observe how the others in the class handled the workload.

Her mothers' stories about how HB felt the best and only way to encourage students were to compare them to others in their family line was not an exaggeration. Esmerelda had told her and Prue about what HB did on a regular basis, so she was prepared. To be honest, Bella and Esmerelda genuinely didn't care.

As she worked on her potion, Bella took a few moments to reflect on how things had been at Cackles. It hadn't been that bad. Okay, so she had not really enjoyed the broomstick flying test since Miss Cackle was just as bad when it came to comparing her to her mother. There was no mention of her aunts, but then she'd expected that.

But overall the majority of the classes were great; aside from the flying test and the incessant need she had to make sure every kid in her classes became fit and healthy, lessons with Miss Drill were great. Spells with Mr Rowan-Webb were also great since the only wizard on staff was nice enough to make the lessons interesting and fun. Sometimes the wizard made them play games while helping them develop their spell knowledge and exercise their spell repertoires.

In contrast, the chanting classes were fairly boring. It was an important lesson in the witching world because it helped some witches develop their oratory skills while giving them confidence, but in other areas, it helped developing musicians practice their art. It didn't help with the teacher. While Miss Bat was a very nice woman, very kind and approachable even by witching standards, she did have a tendency of falling asleep during lessons. Her mother and aunt had told her stories about that. It seemed it had happened frequently during their own time at Cackles, but it was clear that for Bella in her time at school, Miss Bat was even worse.

There were some lessons she didn't like, potions was one of them.

Esmerelda had not made the same mistakes with her daughters as her parents had done, which was to palm them off to other people, such as her great granny Josephine and her now deceased dead great grandpa, although Aunt Ethel and Aunt Sybil were given to tutors instead. No, Esmerelda had made sure to teach both of her daughters equally in order to form the important bond between mother and daughter which symbolised the daughters' ascension as a witch in training, and she had made sure both of her daughters were confident in their lessons and in themselves. There was no way she was going to allow a repeat of what had happened with her sisters happening again.

As she worked on the potion in front of her, Bella couldn't help but think of her missing aunt.

That talk with Tasha Nightshade and Morgan Spellbody had been insightful, but what she couldn't grasp was why anyone would give someone the bedroom of a girl who went missing. But the two older girls had made her think about things from another point of view. Bella didn't know either girl, but if they had run away then surely they would have at least left something behind, and if they were sick enough to just run off and decide to fake their deaths or something, why hadn't something been found like a bloody handkerchief, a few strands of hair, stuff like that?

And yet, from what Tasha Nightshade and her friend had said about Mildred and her mothers' relationship, the girl would never just leave without at least telling the woman she was okay. So what was happening?

As she worked near her friend Miranda, Bella had just opened a little bottle of mermaid tears and was about to pour some of the turquoise liquid into the potion before letting it simmer for a bit before she heard something in her head that shocked her in its intensity. It was the sound of drums, and it seemed to chill her to the bones, and she dropped the vial.

The sound of smashing glass instantly brought Miss Hardbroom's attention, and Bella turned to face the angry potions mistress, but she could still hear the drumming and she looked over her shoulder and she could see that Miranda had made a mess with her own potion but it was more manageable than her own, and Bella hypothesised she was just startled by what had happened. "What is the meaning of this, Miss Hallow?" the potions teacher hissed at her.

Bella shivered with fear as the cold reptilian eyes mercilessly glared at her. She knew that it would need to be good. "I accidentally lost my hold on the bottle, Miss Hardbroom," Bella said, mentally kicking herself for not finding a better excuse to use on the woman.

Miss Hardbroom leaned in closely. Bella had to hold back the urge to wince when she caught a whiff of the womans' acrid breath.

"Do you have any idea how expensive mermaid tears are?" she growled.

Bella swallowed, she didn't need the teacher to tell her. She already knew how expensive the tears were, some of her mothers' business involved the collection and trafficking of mermaid tears and scales. Mermaids were extremely hard to find, even for witches and wizards, and they did not like to be bothered. Their blood, tears, scales, hair and saliva were extremely valuable, and they had remarkable properties.

Even farming the mermaids and allowing them to give some of the ingredients was impossible. Mermaids did not like to be caught or locked up, even worse they were extremely unbearable when confined.

"Detention for tonight, you can clean up this laboratory without magic," Miss Hardbroom eventually hissed out before she stalked off, flicking her fingers at the mess, and causing the bottle to reform though there was nothing she could do about the magical tears.

* * *

Bella walked tiredly into her bedroom many hours later. The blonde haired witch was tired, and all she wanted to do was drop onto the bed and drop off. She was beyond exhausted. After dinner, HB had made sure she cleaned the laboratory from top to bottom. Without magic. The good news was her mother had made it very clear to her one of HBs' favourite punishments was to have her precious laboratory cleaned without magic since she preferred punishments to be incredibly long and drawn out.

The bad news was Esmerelda had also taken the punishment and used it to teach her daughter what to expect. Bella remembered all of those long days where her mother forced her to clean the potions room at their home in order to build her experience. Bella was thankful she had learnt those skills now, but she was still tired, and she almost passed out on the bed, but first, she slowly got undressed and put on her night things before she washed her teeth and her face before she crawled into bed.

She was just about to get under the covers when there was a knock on the door, which made Bella sigh. She sat up and glared at the door. With a flick of her hand, she opened the door and she blinked in surprise when she saw Miranda there. The bespectacled girl was still wearing her uniform and her hair was down.

"Hi, Miranda. What's wrong?" Bella asked, hoping her friend was not going to be here long.

"Sorry I'm bothering you," the other witch said, and Bella raised an eyebrow, relieved her best friend was empathic enough to see she was tired. "I just wanted to know….what happened in the lab today? What really happened?"

"How do you mean?" Bella asked cautiously; she had no intention of telling her friend the truth unless she wanted to be seen as a lunatic.

Miranda sat on the bed. "I glanced at you when you were making that potion. I just wanted to smile like we did during our entrance tests, but I saw you look startled at something else," she said before she licked her lips and looked back at her hesitantly. "Bella, did you hear something? A drumming?"

Bella reacted very much like a cat that had its tail trodden on. "What?"

"A drumming," Miranda repeated.

"You heard it as well?" Bella asked.

"Yeah, I did, and it scared me," Miranda replied.

Bella looked at her friend, for a moment wondering if this was some kind of a lie but how would Miranda know about the sound to make up a lie like that. It made no sense. "It scared me as well, Miranda," Bella admitted, "but what was it?"

"I don't know, but I can tell you something else that's odd; I looked around the room, and apart from an interest in what you accidentally did with those mermaid tears, no-one seemed to have heard it," Miranda said.

Bella blinked in surprise. She hadn't thought of that, but she had to admit now Miranda had brought it up, it was odd. The drumming sound had been so loud it had felt as though someone invisible had been drumming in her ears with a noise-amplification spell mixed with an exploding curse.

"I don't thunk I've ever heard of a spell that can do that," she said cautiously, "though with magic, nothing is truly impossible."

Miranda nodded in agreement. But before they could say or do anything else, they heard it again, the drumming. It began as a throbbing sound at first that went right through them both. Then it grew louder until it felt as though there was a dragon breathing on them.

Miranda jumped up and headed for the door, desperate to escape, but as she got to the door she paused. "Bella, the sound…. it's coming from the corridor, I don't know how I know but I can hear it."

Bella stood up and walked over to her. As she stood in the doorway, she turned her head from left to right, and she could definitely tell the sound was coming from the right. "Wait here," she said, "I'm going to put some clothes on, and then we're going to find out what that sound is."

She was tired, she knew that she should be in bed, but she knew she didn't want to go to bed with this drumming sound in her head, and she could imagine Miranda wanted to do the same thing. But one look at Mirandas' face told the blonde the bespectacled girl was scared to find out.

"It's coming from down here," Miranda whispered to her friend as they walked down the corridor holding a lantern.

Bella nodded, feeling just as apprehensive as Miranda was; she could tell that her friend was scared, but she didn't think this drumming sound was going to go away.

The drumming sound led them to a door. There was no label on the wood. Miranda and Bella exchanged a look, and the bespectacled girl shrugged her shoulders, and opened the door. The room was filled to the ceiling with clutter; old desks, battered chairs that looked like they'd been demolished with spells over the years, there were old, tattered sheets of cloth that covered old pieces of furniture.

"What could be drumming in here?" Bella whispered.

"Who knows?" Miranda whispered back, swallowing apprehensively as she looked around. The light from the lantern was casting a comforting glow around the room, but as the light shone it also created dozens of shadows which overlapped with one another, creating terrifying shapes.

The drumming sound started up again, shocking them both and made them jump and turn towards a certain part of the storeroom, and as they cast their lantern around they came upon something they didn't expect.

There, tucked out of sight, was a box with the name Jumanji stamped on it in fading white paint, and in the dim light, they could see four pictures on it, of animals from wild Africa and India with a fierce-looking hunter wearing a helmet.

Bella opened up the box. "It's a game," she whispered as she took in the four paths that led in some way to the centre. Miranda nodded to two objects on the board, they were quite close to the centre, but they weren't that close. "Looks like it was being played before it was abandoned," she said, her voice blissfully unconcerned before she found herself reading the instructions. "It looks like a straightforward enough board game to me, but I don't get why it made that drumming."

"Or why and how no-one else heard it," Bella pointed out, lifting the lantern up higher before she studied the board game. Her fingers found a small door which opened up and she pulled out two objects. One was in the shape of a tigers' head, the second a crocodile.

"More pieces?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah," Bella replied before she decided to put them back since it wouldn't help the pair of them to understand the mystery of what had caused the drumming sound. But before she could just drop them back into their box, the pieces suddenly leapt out of her hand and they landed on two corners of the game.

Miranda jumped. "What was that?"

"I don't know. I've never experienced anything like that before with any kind of magical game before," Bella replied.

Miranda didn't respond. She suddenly felt funny, sick to her stomach suddenly. "B-Bella, s-something's wrong," she gasped.

"I know," Bella replied, and Miranda lifted her head and she saw her friend looked as nauseous as she herself thought. But then Miranda lifted her fingers, and she gasped in horror.

Her fingers were turning into smoke, and the rest of her hands and arms were also transforming into smoke, and sucked into the board games' centre.

"Bella!" Miranda screamed in panic.

"Miranda, what's going on?" Bella shouted back, just as frightened, and Miranda turned to look at her friend and she could see that Bella was going through the same thing she was. Her hands and arms were being transformed into smoke and when whatever was happening to them reached their armpits, they were suddenly lifted into the air and then they were spun around over the games' centre, before they were sucked downwards so fast Miranda could barely see what was happening in the room.

The darkness of the storeroom and the weak glow of the lantern candle disappeared, replaced by a clear cloudless sky during the day. Miranda would never truly understand what had happened, she would never work out of they fell through the air or if they were somehow transferred into a hot forest.

Bella was standing next to her, just as stunned and for a moment the two girls wobbled around, surprised they were suddenly upright in this strange alien landscape.

Miranda was about to say something, open her mouth and ask a question, but before she could actually get a word out they suddenly went still when they actually listened to where they were. They could hear the sound of numerous animals, the squawking of birds as they flew through the air.

Miranda and Bella looked at one another, both of them wondering what was going on.

* * *

Oooh, they are now both trapped in Jumanji, a game of magic. What will happen to them? Who will they meet? Will they get out?


	8. Chapter 8

The second part of The Curse of Jumanji double-bill.

Please leave feedback and enjoy.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"Where in Merlins' name are we?" Miranda whispered. She was terrified by the strange sights around her, and at the sudden cawing of a bird, Miranda cowered. Bella wished her friend wouldn't ask a question she herself didn't know the answer to, she was meanwhile looking around the alien landscape, terrified while she loosened her school tie. It was seriously hot.

"I don't know," she said back, looking with wide-eyed terror at the plant-life around them. Once Bella had gone to the jungles in India, and while this place reminded her vividly of her visit, there was something….. warped about the plant-life here. That alone made her turn to her friend.

"We'd better go, I don't like it here," she said, looking fearfully around herself. Miranda nodded, and the two girls walked away from where they'd found themselves. A squawk overhead made them jump as a massive winged shadow passed overhead. The two girls were so startled, Bella tripped on one of the twisted, gnarled tree roots, and she toppled to the ground with a startled cry.

"Ow!" she gasped as she felt a pain in her leg, and she lifted her leg and realised she must have cut it on one of the sharp branches sticking out of the ground.

Miranda hurried over to her to examine the injury. Her father was a doctor, and as a result, Miranda had a good knowledge of healing spells. With practised ease, Miranda ran her hand over the injury on Bellas' leg in what should have been an easy, fluid motion. But she was confused very quickly when she felt there was something wrong with her magic.

Miranda lifted her hand up and studied it closely as if seeing that as the source of her problems before she closed her eyes and mentally summoned a bit more of her magical power to help heal the injury on her friend's leg. This time it worked, but she felt something funny about her magic the second time. It was almost as if her magic was being restrained, and while there were spells capable of doing that there was no sign of them anywhere.

"What happened?" Bella asked her curiously after seeing the clear struggle on Miranda's face as she'd tried to heal the leg.

"I don't know," Miranda replied honestly, looking at her hand once more and turning it over closely as if expecting to see the answer stamped and tattooed into her skin. "When I tried it the first time, it was like a dam had been placed around my magic, but when I tried it the second time, it felt like I was working twice as hard."

Bella opened her mouth in surprise, wondering what could do that to their magic. In fear, Bella looked around and she tried to levitate a small stone she'd spotted not far away. The stone shifted a little bit, almost like it was hesitating to be lifted up. Bella stopped what she was doing, gaping in fear at what her senses were telling her. No, this was not possible. She once more tried to levitate the stone, mentally pushing much more of her magic into a spell that she had been able to do without any true effort since the day she had turned four. This time the stone lifted off of the ground.

"I could levitate stones up to the ceiling of my bedroom," Bella whispered sadly as she closed her eyes and cut off the amount of magic she was pushing into the spell, and she took a deep breath, suddenly feeling exhausted, "what is going on?"

"I don't know, but I think we should get out of here and try to avoid anything that could get us into trouble. With our magic like this, I don't think we can get out of trouble so easily," Miranda suggested and Bella nodded.

The problem with witches and wizards was that ever since the age of one, they had a natural affinity with their magic, and they used it all day while they did everyday things. But now with their powers feeling so sluggish and nearly unresponsive, both girls were frightened. And with good reason.

They had no idea what was out there, and they were frightened they would find themselves in a situation their magic would ordinarily manage to help them with easily, only to discover they would be injured badly.

* * *

The two girls began to explore the landscape slowly, and as they walked through the jungle the two girls remembered all of the stereotypical jungle stories they'd heard over the years. That didn't make them feel any better, they could hear the sounds of numerous animals out there, disturbing both of the young witches as they explored their new surroundings. They often heard the sound of wild animals, adding to the life around them. The howls, squawks, and roars the two girls heard as they walked through the jungle. Occasionally, and both girls were frightened, even more, they heard pained howls and roars echoing in the air, but even more disgustingly they heard sounds that told them what whatever had snatched the animals that made the pained sounds were eating the animal, sometimes alive.

The first time they heard it happen, both Miranda and Bella were both terrified out of their wits, but there was nothing they could do. And neither of them particularly wanted to out there, and find out what was doing the eating. They didn't want to be put on the menu suddenly, especially after so soon after their arrival here, wherever they were.

They had enough problems as it was moving through the weird jungle. In some places, the canopy of trees blocked so much light from above, it was like they were moving through the jungle at night. Bella and Miranda were nervous as they walked through parts of the jungle that was like that, particularly since the trees themselves seemed like living beings. Neither Bella nor Miranda liked the sight of the twisted, gnarled trees, and they passed through the parts of the jungle where they were common as quickly as possible. But as they walked through the jungle, both of the girls couldn't help but feel like they were being watched.

They weren't just feeling that; ever since the pair of them had found themselves inside this place, they had felt as though every moment they had spent here, there were things watching them and listening to their footsteps, following them through this weird place. Occasionally, they wondered if there was something out there, but every time they looked around they couldn't see anything. But that didn't mean there wasn't someone or something lurking around, and with the things roaring and squawking out there, that wasn't hard to disbelieve.

As the girls covered more of the jungle, both Miranda and Bella wished they were able to remove more of their uniforms so then they could cool down a bit, but it wasn't meant to be. Both girls were soon coated in a layer of sweat and more than once they had to pause to push their hair out of the way as they explored the landscape. Their uniforms clung to their skin and were soaked through like they'd both jumped into a lake without taking off their clothes and had decided to go for a walk without towelling themselves dry while they tried to find some civilisation in this weird alien landscape.

They both needed to find shelter, food and water. They also needed to find answers to their questions. Bella and Miranda wanted to know more about where they were and what was going on, among other things.

But as they walked through the jungle, they heard a rustling in the undergrowth and the sound of a terrible roar. Bella swallowed in terror and grabbed hold of Miranda, mentally screaming for her mother to be there with her; her mum would have gladly reassured both her and Miranda without any trouble, but without her mum around Bella felt more terrified than ever before.

Miranda let out a soft whimper and the sound seemed to carry into the air, but Bella couldn't blame her since she was just as afraid.

Suddenly a massive bear with shaggy brown fur burst out of the greenery, roaring and showing off its enormous teeth. The two young witches screamed with fright, and they took off on a run, thankful there had been a slight distance between themselves and the bear when it appeared.

The bear roared and chased after them through the jungle, and the exhaustion of what seemed like hours as they had both walked through the jungle seemed to have vanished as they tried to run away from the bear as it chased after them.

Miranda and Bella were both lighter than the bear, and they were able to move through the jungle into tighter spots, and with an unspoken agreement, the two girls tried to use the tight and narrow gaps between the trees to slow the bear down. But while they sometimes saw the bear charge in after them and get stuck occasionally between the trees in the jungle, listening to it bellowing with rage and frustration, the two young witches carried on running.

After they'd rushed between the narrow trunks of a number of trees whose roots seemed to have become so interlocked together it was virtually impossible for the trees to live together without touching themselves, making it hard for Bella and Miranda to run through them since the roots had broken the surface of the ground so they had to leap over them, they could hear the bears' rage from behind. They both faltered as they ran as the adrenaline that was keeping them going was overpowered by their harsh breathing and their leaden feet.

Bella bent over double while Miranda leaned against a tree, her breathing making her chest rise and fall while her throat sounded like it had just spent time being rubbed raw.

"I-I can't run anymore," Bella gasped as her lungs frantically tried to grab any stray particle of air into them.

"I know," Miranda whispered, panting, her face red.

"Do you think we lost it?" Bella asked.

A sudden roar and the sound of the bear charging towards them answered their question, but this time Miranda decided she wasn't going to just run anymore.

"Bella!" she called, but the blonde witch was too far ahead. "BELLA!"

Bella turned her head, her face panicky. "What?!"

"Let's try magic! I don't see the harm of trying."

"But we both had problems making our spells work," Bella pointed out as they ran while the bear chased after them. Miranda gasped as her outer dress got caught on a clump of thorns, but she tore them away, leaving some deep gashes in her uniform. These Cackles uniforms were not too bad for running in… over flat surfaces, not through overgrown jungles being chased by vicious bears.

"Why don't we combine our powers, that might be enough to break through whatever it is that's stopping us using our magic?" Miranda countered as they rushed through the jungle, her eyes wide with terror since the bear was right behind her. That was another reason she wanted to try to stop the bear.

Bella thought about it, and she nodded. "Okay, but what spell do we use? It has to be something we can agree on in order to work."

"I was thinking something simple, like a tripping spell or a clumsiness curse. It might be enough to slow the bear down without killing it, though truthfully I can't think of a way of injuring it."

Bella at this point didn't really care or give a damn about injuring the bear, but she had to admit she couldn't think of a way either. "Okay," she managed to get out.

The two witches grabbed hold of each other's hands and summoned their magic for this one spell to use against the bear. It wasn't easy. Bella and Miranda were running at different paces, so Miranda had to work much harder in order to catch up with her friend. When she did, the two girls didn't stop running as they worked to summon their magic, and together they began to chant the incantation.

"We are not one, we are two. We are not one, we are two. We are not one, we are two," they chanted, but it was hard for the two witches to speak and run at the same time while their bodies were still virtually breathless. But the two girls could feel their magic gathering strength as they intoned the incantation, so they knew it was working. "By root, branch and tree, let us FLEE!"

Together they stopped and flicked out their hands, and they could see the magic fly towards the bear chasing them down. They saw the bear stumble and trip, but it roared in rage again as it straightened up and carried on after them.

"The spell didn't work!" Bella looked almost accusingly at her friend like it was her own fault, though she was too frightened for the effect to be genuine.

"It's like the spell just bounced off of the bear!" Miranda cried, but the two girls screamed when the bear, driven near insane with rage, chased after them both, smashing through the jungle.

Soon Bella and Miranda were screaming in terror as the bear chased after them. They could both hear the bear thundering on behind them, and it was gaining speed. To make things worse the jungle was becoming more open and the trees were no longer growing interlinked together, so there was no way to slow the monstrous creature down.

While she was screaming, aware the bear was gaining on them and that sooner or later it would be close enough to tear them both apart, Bella's thoughts turned to her mother. _"Goodbye mum, I love you!"_

Suddenly both Miranda and Bella screamed again, this time in surprise as they were suddenly grabbed from above and lifted high into the air!

* * *

What's happened now?

Wait and see. A family reunion is about to take place.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer - I don't own The Worst Witch or Jumanji. Just to let you know.

Feedback... would be appreciated since I am trying to do something different here.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Bella and Miranda screamed as they were lifted off of the ground, both preteen girls were taken by surprise when they were suddenly lifted up away from the bear. As they were raised higher into the air, both girls suddenly lost their breath, and they realised whatever had caught them both was holding onto them by using the hoops of their gymslips!

"Calm down, the pair of you!" Bella frowned when she heard the voice as it called out. It was the voice of a woman. There was a trace of the same southern accent in the voice, much like her own or her aunts….

She was broken out of her thoughts when she felt whatever was holding onto her shake. "No," another voice groaned, also a woman, this time with an accent that was northern instead of southern, "the brooms, they're starting to shake themselves to pieces again, just like the others."

"Do you think we're gonna make it?"

"I don't know. We always had time before they fell apart before."

"Yeah, but we never had two girls flying with us before," the woman with the southern accent pointed out..

"We've got spares back at the place," the woman with the northern accent said.

The other woman sighed. Miranda took the opportunity to take a look at her rescuer. The woman had long, messy, unkempt hair that was brownish in colour, but it was so matted with dirt it was virtually impossible for her to tell what colour it was. But as she looked closer Miranda could see lighter strands here and there. Blonde hair. There were a few traces of this blonde hair everywhere, but they were overtaken by the darker shading.

Miranda took a look at the woman's clothes. They were a curious mix of animal skins, leathers and rags that were held together by crude stitch work, but the broomstick they were riding because it was a broomstick, of sorts, but it was shaking so badly she couldn't tell what it was made from.

Bella, meanwhile, was also paying attention to the woman who'd rescued her. This woman had much darker skin and hair that looked so messy it looked like she had never seen a comb or a brush in ages, but as Bella looked closer she could see for herself this woman's skin actually had dirt ingrained into her face, like she had been wallowing and rolling around in wet soil for ages.

She had only one question on her mind. "Who are you?" she asked the dark haired woman.

The woman glanced down at her, and Bella saw her eyes crinkle for a moment before she looked straight up again when the broom shook itself a little more violently than it had done before. "We'll tell you in a bit," she replied, her voice brisk as though she didn't think it mattered. But Bella could tell the woman had other things on her mind than to answer questions.

Miranda, however, had other questions on her mind. "How did you know we were down there?" she asked.

The woman with the southern accent replied in a way that sounded to Bella she was trying very hard to get annoyed but was holding herself back. "We heard you scream," she replied like it was obvious. "No-one in this place would scream like that, well no-one from around here that is."

Miranda frowned when the implication hit home. "You mean…. you're not from here?"

"No," the lighter woman sighed sadly, her eyes so drawn out with pain and grief Miranda almost cried at how much it affected her. "We're not."

The other woman spoke up - Bella was the only one of the two younger girls who noticed the dark-haired woman glance over at her companion with a look of the kind of sympathy that only hoped whenever you met someone suffering from the same pain and grief you were.

With that in mind, Bella asked her rescuer. "How long have you been here?"

The dark haired woman spared her a look, and Bella could see clearly the woman's dark eyes set in a moonlike face, highlighted by dozens of small cuts and scars attained by a long life of hardship. "Too long," the woman said shortly, her voice quiet and upset as her eyes took on a haunted expression, and she went silent after that when the broomstick shuddered all the way.

* * *

Thanks to the instability of the broomsticks, which were quite crudely made, the journey to wherever the women were heading for was a long one. The constant jarring and shaking of the broomsticks made it hard for the two women to handle them. More than once both Bella and Miranda felt they were going to fall to their deaths, and even the two women were cursing in annoyance whenever the brooms shook.

All four females were more than relieved when they, at last, arrived at their destination. It was a small cave hacked into the side of a rocky mountain that overlooked the valley. Miranda studied the entrance to the cave and the mountain itself, and apart from the bits of vine and plant-life that clung to the side of the rock walls, she could see the face of the cliff was extremely steep and it didn't look like there was any way an animal could climb up unless they were well adapted for that type of work.

In layman's terms, this place was the perfect place for anyone to live, especially if you had magic.

The thought of magic made Miranda frown as she remembered how they'd arrived and their magic had failed to really make a difference; Miranda knew if they had used that spell on any other animal, there would have been major effects but the bear had shaken it off like the spell was just a bothersome rash.

The two adult witches landed their broomsticks slowly, allowing the younger girls the chance to feel solid ground beneath their feet. When they were released Miranda and Bella looked around the cave. The first impression on their minds was this place was more like a camp; these witches clearly had no plan to remain here for too long. There was no furniture besides a couple of logs the witches had brought up here to make this place more comfortable, and there was no sign of a table. In a corner was a small cave opening that led to another part of the mountain, and as she listened closely she could hear the sound of running water.

Miranda wondered how these two witches spent their time. It must be driving them mad to live like this; she had heard stories about people who were stranded on desert islands or in jungles found something creative to take their minds off of their isolation. A bit of woodwork here and there, some cave art or something along those lines, but in this cave, there was nothing here to show any signs of that. But as she looked around, Miranda blinked in horror when she saw twin piles of matted long grass heaped untidily on the ground.

She swallowed when she realised what those piles were. They were clearly used as beds for the two women. How had they come to live like this?

"Thank you for saving us," Bella said to the witches.

The dark-haired woman smiled at her kindly. "You're welcome," she replied generously, but her face crinkled into a frown as she took in the young blonde girl's uniform. Her eyes widened when she locked eyes onto the Cackle's badge. But before she could say anything Miranda's voice caught her attention.

Miranda had just wandered over to a corner of the cave where there were long thick lengths of bamboo, piled next to a small number of twigs and rushes. "What's all this?" she asked.

The lighter haired witch walked over. "This is what we make our broomsticks out of," she said.

"There's so much," Bella noted when she walked over, putting aside her questions about these two women out of her mind for the moment, though she was curious about the attention the dark-haired woman had shown to her uniform.

"That's because everything in Jumanji is, at different levels, resilient to magic," the lighter witch with the southern accent said.

"What?" Miranda gasped, though she kicked herself for her reaction. Resistant to magic, now it made sense…

The dark-haired witch sent her a look of surprise. "You must have worked that out after you encountered the bear. We saw you both from above, but we were too high up to shout at you."

"So you saw what we tried to do?" Bella asked.

The dark-haired witch nodded. "Everything was going by so fast," she said, "when we realised what you were trying to do, it was too late to let you know it wouldn't have worked. It was a shock to us," she gestured to her friend, "when we arrived in this hell hole we couldn't use magic."

"How long have you been here?" Miranda whispered shyly, afraid of the answer.

"We don't know," the witch with the southern accent whispered, and the pain in her eyes was terrible to see.

"We tried to keep a count of the days, hoping someone else would play the game, get us out….," the dark-haired witch trailed off, looking down sadly. "But with so much happening, we lost count of the days, and we couldn't restart writing a chart because we'd lost the old one."

"The game?" Miranda repeated. "We were playing a game called-,"

"Jumanji?" the dark-haired woman repeated, her dark eyes flashing dangerously at the name, hatred flashing over her face. "We're inside Jumanji right this minute. We couldn't keep count of how many days we've been trapped here simply because we lost track of the days; that's what happens when you're under constant attack from different animals."

Bella visibly shook and the other adult witch noticed the tears rolling down the young blonde girl's face. "Don't worry, as long as you two stay with us, you'll be okay," she said as reassuringly as she could, but Bella could tell that despite her doing her best this adult witch was really sensitive but clearly didn't know how to get it just right…

"So Jumanji is still in Cackles?" the dark-haired witch suddenly asked, turning her attention over to Miranda.

Miranda looked at her sharply. "You know about Cackles?"

The dark-haired witch smiled and gestured between herself and her friend. "We were students there. Third years," she reached inside her clothes and pulled out a small metallic object. Miranda looked at it closely. It was a Cackle's badge, it was tarnished, battered and scratched and some of the colour had faded, but she recognised the red belonging to the red house.

Miranda looked up at the witch. A suspicion was blooming in her mind at who these two women were, but she needed to know. "Who are you?" she asked.

The dark-haired witch smiled. "My name is-,"

"Mildred Hubble?" Bella whispered, looking at the dark-haired with growing amazement. "You're Mildred Hubble, aren't you?"

The dark-haired witch blinked at her in surprise. "You know who I am?"

Miranda nodded, but before she could say anything Bella's whisper. "If you're Mildred then that means….. you're Auntie Ethie!" she said, looking at the woman with the southern accent.

Hearing that made the lighter haired woman jump and look at the younger blonde in surprise. "What? What did you say?" she whispered.

Tears were streaming down Bella's face in rivers. "It is you, Auntie?" she said, her voice thick with tears. "I'm Bella…..Esmerelda Hallow's daughter!"

Ethel gasped and she put her hand over her mouth at the mention of her elder sister. "Esm-Esmerelda's daughter?" she repeated before she began to cry. Before Miranda or Mildred could say anything, Ethel grabbed Bella and wrapped her in her arms, and both Hallows began to cry. It was a very strange act, given the Hallows constantly preached to themselves Hallows did not cry but neither of them cared or gave it much thought.

* * *

"Thirty years?" Mildred repeated later as she and Ethel handed the two younger girls some freshly cooked meat and some vegetables and fruit. Both girls accepted the food dubiously because they had no idea what the meat was, or even how they got it. Miranda had spotted a crudely made bow and a set of arrows nearby, but she wasn't going to say anything.

Bella nodded. "After you went missing there was a massive crackdown on Cackles while the Magic Council organised searches for you both, but they found nothing."

Mildred glanced over at Ethel and saw the blonde woman's face look as stricken as she herself thought, though truthfully Mildred genuinely didn't really care what had happened at Cackles since they'd been sucked into the game. Thirty years? What had been happening for thirty years? Both witches had always regretted losing track of that part of the jungle where they'd made note of how many days they'd been trapped in Jumanji, but thanks to being driven out by Van Pelt it wasn't as if they could stroll back.

Bella had already told her aunt what had been happening with the family, how Sybil had won a number of magical musical competitions and had gone on to become a very successful musician though she was only being encouraged by her grandmother and Esmerelda to succeed. Nothing new there; Mildred knew only too well how detached Mr and Mrs Hallow were.

But Mildred was trying her best to tune out the family chatter because it brought back her own fears about her mother. Thoughts of how her mother was coping were never far from Mildred's mind. When she had first noticed the uniforms the two girls were wearing, she had recognised them instantly but after spending thirty years trapped in a hellish magical game with someone like Ethel Hallow for company, Mildred had learnt to close her emotions off. Wishing for her mother would not magically make her appear but right here and now were two people who might know what had happened to her mum…

No. There was a chance they didn't know, and even if they did know it wouldn't help them right now.

Although she wanted to find out what had happened to Julie, she didn't know if these two girls knew it….

"Don't you want to hear about your mother, Mildred?" Miranda suddenly asked her.

Mildred would dearly love to hear about her mother. Indeed she was genuinely surprised these girls seemed to know about her mum, but after her resolve not to find out…. In the end, she shook her head in the negative at the girl. "No, thank you Miranda," she smiled, wondering if the smile was as fake as it felt but she genuinely didn't care since the fact she had a chance to know what had happened to her mother and how she was doing was causing more pain for her now because these two probably did know, though how she didn't know. "I don't want to know," Mildred felt she needed to get out before she lost her bottle and turned around and begged the girls into telling her what was going on back home, "I don't want to spend my time feeling bad my mother has been suffering for thirty years."

With that, she stood up and walked over to the entrance of the cave that overlooked the valley. Miranda and Bella watched her leave worriedly, and they turned to Ethel.

"I didn't mean to upset her," Miranda whispered, feeling guilty.

Ethel sighed. "No, you didn't do anything wrong," she said feeling worried about her friend herself but knowing the girls needed to understand what was wrong with Mildred. "It's just we've spent thirty years trapped in this place, and now she has the chance to hear about her mother. I can tell you, we've both been worried about our loved ones since we were trapped here. Mildred just doesn't want to feel bad, even if it wasn't her fault we're trapped here."

Ethel felt guilty that she had spent an hour pumping her niece for information about her sisters and their lives and more than once she had noticed Mildred's expression wishing to know how her mother was but was absolutely terrified to hear what had happened, what could have happened to her mother. Ethel had always been jealous because Mildred had a loving mother and it had taken a lot of time and more than one deadly experience in Jumanji where every single day was a struggle to survive that she had needed to learn to grow up enough to realise life did not revolve around her and what she wanted.

Mildred had been a big help especially since without each other they would probably have died a long time ago. But it was just so hard they had been trapped for thirty years.

Bella looked between her aunt and Mildred Hubble with confusion. She had lost track of how many stories her sisters had about the feud between her aunt and the brunette witch. While it was great the pair of them seemed to be friendly now, Bella just didn't have experience of the pair of them to know whether it was just a friendship of necessity rather than something genuine, but her aunt seemed to genuinely care about Mildred's feelings about her mother.

In the end, she decided to change the subject and find out what was going on - she would keep an eye on her aunt and Mildred to see if they were friends or not now - but her desire to escape from this place was overwhelming. "So, what is this place?" she asked, deciding to start small.

Ethel was surprised by the question and she looked in the direction Mildred had gone off in before she turned back to face her niece. "This is Jumanji," she began, "the magical game you were playing. When we first played it, the game was just that, an ordinary board game but when we first moved the pieces we found ourselves here."

"That's what happened with us," Miranda nodded, "and then we found out our magic doesn't work-."

"Oh it does work," Mildred interrupted the conversation as she came back, her dirty face drawn with something neither preteen could work out. "We're still witches, there's no doubt about that, but all the animals here are resistant to magic; well you've probably worked that out already after that bear."

"The broomsticks we've made are made from whatever we can find," Ethel added, "but they don't last as long as a good old broomstick. It's like this whole place drains the magic through the wood."

"I once flew to Cackles Academy on an ordinary non-magical mop, but it lasted longer than what we've had to cope with," Mildred added at this point, "I didn't have my own broomstick, it had been reduced to dust at the time, but the mop was a good, brief replacement. But here…. our broomsticks are as good as we can get them to be, but they come from Jumanji. We think the bamboo canes and the rushes of grass and twigs we use to make the broomsticks are like the animals; while our magic does work on them they eventually stop working after a while."

"When did you start making broomsticks?" Miranda asked, knowing like all witches that a broomstick was just basically a piece of wood with branches and imbued with a few spells to keep the rider safe and secure, but also knew it was possible for a witch or wizard to grab a large enough branch and use that as a crude broomstick.

She could understand why these two would rig up broomsticks to travel on since a broom was faster and probably safer, especially after she and Bella had experienced what it was like to walk in the jungle for themselves.

"Not long after we arrived," Ethel replied, "though we do sometimes move about on foot since its a good idea of knowing where all the trouble is, we need to find fresh food and water, not to mention other places to live."

"What do you mean, other places to live?" Bella asked.

Mildred gestured around the cave with her hands. "You two must have worked out already we haven't been here long," she said, gesturing to the crude furniture she and Ethel had in the cave, "we've only been here for a few weeks."

Bella frowned, "Where were you before?"

"Close to a waterfall," Ethel replied.

"Why did you leave?"

Miranda glanced at Bella in rising terror when she saw the worry cross Mildred and Ethel's faces. Mildred sighed. "We were driven out," she whispered, "by a pride of lions. They attacked us after they tracked us down, drove us out of the camp we'd set up. We had both assumed the waterfall would have been perfect, it was in a part of the jungle that was hard to reach on foot, but the lions tracked us down. By the time we realised they were there, it was almost too late."

Ethel nodded, grimacing as she did. "I got slashed on my back," she added for the benefit of her horrified listeners. Bella even had tears running down her face at how her aunt had been injured.

But both Mildred and Ethel were trying to sugarcoat their experiences of that nightmare to show both girls they needed to be careful without going into too much depth about what had happened on that awful night. They didn't want to tell either girl of what had happened, but they needed to make it clear to both Bella and Miranda Jumanji was not a place to wander around.

"We're used to a nomadic life," Ethel whispered, remembering how she had once gone off in a strop because Mildred hadn't done something, it was so long ago she couldn't remember the details, and she almost got them both killed because her stupid bloody temper and selfish attitude made it hard for her to see the bigger picture. "We once lived in a large tree, but we were driven out by monkeys. The animals here are nightmares."

"What do you mean?" Miranda leaned forward, though she privately wondered why she was asking that after what happened with the bear, but she just wanted to hear more about what was out there so they could avoid it.

Mildred sighed and paused as if she was thinking about the best way to approach this though she must have known it would have come up. Meanwhile, Ethel was content to watch and speak up if she felt the need, but she was happy for Mildred to do the talking.

"The animals here…. they're warped," Mildred said slowly, while she was trying to decide the best way to describe the animals, "you've already encountered a bear, but there's more out there. Much more…. All the animals in Jumanji may outwardly look like the animals we know of in the real world, and they share the same behaviour. But that's as far as it goes. The animals are faster, stronger, and more vicious. In the real world, if you keep a respectful distance from them, they will leave you alone, but if you bother them, they will attack you. Here, it is the other way around; the animals here will go for you even if you're not a threat to them."

Bella shivered, this was worse than she'd imagined. Ethel noticed her niece's fears and got up and walked over to her and wrapped Bella in a hug, making Miranda look envious until the blonde woman wrapped another arm around her so she wouldn't feel left out.

Mildred smiled at the image, but she quickly got back on track. "The animals here are like the stereotypical image you have of them, sort of how like hunters from a hundred years back brought stories of man-eating leopards or tigers, though the reality is very different. But Jumanji is warped. This place, this jungle, the animals…. they're like the stereotypical image of a hostile tropical land, mixed with a dash of fantasy because there are things out there you'd only expect to see in your nightmares. There are things out there you can't imagine. We have to buckle down at night because there are things that hunt us in the night. Believe me, we know. Once Ethel nearly got killed by a plant-,"

"Oh, don't, please don't," Ethel interrupted, glaring at Mildred.

"Sorry," the brunette witch said, but she didn't sound it.

Bella and Miranda shared a look. "Mum and Aunt Sybil always said Mildred and Aunt Ethel fight a lot, looks like nothing has changed," Bella said.

Suddenly all the girls went still when they heard a sound, a loud barking sound that went through all the girls and the air of the jungle, overshadowing the sounds of the animals and the wind whistling in the humid air.

Miranda looked around fearfully. "W-what was that?" she asked the older witches.

But Mildred and Ethel were looking at each other with dread, not fear. "He's back," Mildred said, her voice grim.

* * *

Until the next time...


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer - I don't own The Worst Witch or Jumanji, I'm just a writer playing around with an idea.

Feedback would be nice, yes, and thanks for your continued support.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Bella looked between her aunt and Mildred, her eyes questioning and wide with fear. "Who's back?" she asked quietly, too terrified to speak louder. Ever since she had found herself trapped in Jumanji with her best friend and reunited with her aunt, Bella had quickly learnt how terrifying this place was, and everything new was probably evil8.

But the older witches weren't listening to her. Mildred instantly ran towards the broomsticks lined against the wall, Ethel following close behind her.

"Are you going to find out where he is?" she asked, and Bella could hear the real worry in her aunt's voice, and it made her more frightened than ever.

She had no idea what was outside, and it was clear whoever it was out there was someone to worry about.

"I might as well," Mildred grabbed a second broomstick, and strapped it to her back, talking as she did, "it will give us enough time to work out what to do next."

Ethel nodded, "I'll start packing up when you've gone. At least I've got a couple of helpers to shorten the length of time it will take."

Mildred looked at her seriously, "You'd better tell them about him when I'm gone."

Ethel's voice was grim. "I intend to."

"The sooner they know what's out there, the better," Mildred just had to go on, and Ethel rolled her eyes. "I know," she ground out, frustrated with Mildred for telling her stuff once, and then needing to go on. She would never understand the Hubble need to yak on and on.

"Who are you going to find out is out there?" Miranda interrupted their hurried and worried talk with her equally worried question, but her voice was more impatient and far more strident than Bella's, so it was enough to attract the attention of the two older witches. Miranda blushed when the older witches' attention was on her, she hadn't intended to be that demanding, but she shook that aside and focused on the matter at hand. "Look, I know we've not been here long, but we're here now, and we need to know what's going on."

Mildred glanced at Ethel and then turned back to Miranda. "Ethel will fill you in, but right now I've got to get out there. I'll be back as soon as I can," she said as she walked over to the entrance of the cave. She mounted on top of her homemade broomstick and flew clumsily out of the cave. Ethel sighed and rolled her eyes, and Bella wondered for a moment whether or not her aunt and Mildred had indeed become friends or not, but this wasn't the time to ask.

Ethel meanwhile turned to face the two younger witches, studying them both. They were worried, she could see that clearly; she was worried herself, but she agreed with Mildred that the sooner these two learnt what was out there, the better off they would be. She sighed and walked over to them, and sat down on the stone floor, waving for Bella and Miranda to do the same thing.

"I don't know how to say this, so I shall just say it; we're not the only people, humans that is, in Jumanji. There are others out there," she began, but before she could go any further, Miranda interrupted her.

"Then why are we hiding in a cave? Surely it would be safer with them?"

Despite the logical statement, Ethel had to bite down her tongue to stop herself from shouting at the pair of them, but she had to calm herself down. This was neither the time nor was it the place. "It's not," she decided to be short and simple with the girls, and she mentally cursed Mildred for going because the brunette would be better at this than she was. But Mildred was gone, so she was the one forced to carry the cauldron.

Ethel looked down at her hands for a moment, trying to work out the best way of making it clear to the girls, one of whom was her niece though she barely knew the girl, and she cursed the game for stealing thirty years of her life.

Still looking down at her hands, she started speaking, "Believe me, when Mildred and I found out about them, we immediately thought we would be safe, but we weren't. There are a few tribes out there, a couple of them are nomadic but whenever they meet each other they immediately launch into a full-scale war. Just like that," she clicked her fingers, making sure they sparked with magic though not enough to create a spell. "One of the tribes has tried to capture us more than once, though we're not sure if they want to marry us or eat us, though we've got plenty of evidence they would do it."

The younger witches looked at each other in worry, Bella shivered at the thought of being eaten by someone else. "But who is it Mildred's going to look for?"

Ethel sighed. "His name is Van Pelt. He's a hunter. He hunts and kills things," she said simply, "and he wants to kill me and Mildred."

She felt it was too cruel to tell the two girls if Van Pelt found them, he would more than likely do the same thing with them, but it looked like they were already considering the likelihood.

"Why?" Miranda asked.

"We don't know," Ethel said, "all we do know is he's been hunting us down ever since we found out about him, but he seemed to know we were in the game the whole time."

"When did you meet him?" Miranda whispered, her mind instantly catching onto the implication of the last part.

"We met him sometime after we arrived in Jumanji," Ethel's eyes became haunted as she remembered the first time she had seen Van Pelt which had only sparked a massive and endless game of cat and mouse across Jumanji. "Mildred and I were still getting used to the place, but we'd already been attacked half a dozen or so times by the animals. We'd already been injured a couple of times; nothing too serious," she added quickly when she saw the looks on the girls' faces, "just a few bruises, cuts, that type of thing, and we had already come upon a number of purple plants that grow on vines that spread everywhere that shoot out poisonous barbs, and we'd found out it was a very bad idea to wander too close to the where the baboon troops move around. All that was bad enough, but then it got worse when we found out there was a hunter out there who wanted to shoot us both."

Ethel closed her eyes as she remembered the day she and Mildred had found that little patch of rugged land that didn't seem to have any hostile animals on it, and how they had both planned to find a way to live on it out there… only to be shot at by Van Pelt. She decided not to tell them that part of the story because it would take her forever to get through it.

In the end, she decided to keep it as simple as she possibly could. "One minute we didn't know he was there, the next… he was shooting us and he very nearly killed us both," she said simply, glad she had managed to condense the story so easily, but when she saw the terror on both girl's faces, she felt bad. That one of them was Esmerelda's daughter made her feel worse. "Ever since then, Van Pelt has been hunting us down, but luckily we've sometimes gone for months without seeing or hearing him, though we've learnt the hard way it is not a good idea to stay in one place too long. That's why this cave looks so sparse and simple; we thought we'd gotten rid of him once, you know, masked our trail. No such luck. We had found a nice little cave in a waterfall in a deep ravine, no way anything large could get in. Van Pelt used his dogs to try to smoke us out."

"His dogs?"

"Yeah. Van Pelt has a small pack of them. Think of some of the most vicious dogs imaginable in the real world, make them larger, more vicious, add in the typical resilience to our magic that everything here has, and you get an idea of what they're like," Ethel replied, "he uses them to flush out his prey. He's used them a number of times on both of us. Sometimes, he would take them out of his compound, and let them go free for a bit before they go back to his home. We've learnt the hard way it's a good idea to not camp on the ground. There is nothing worse than suddenly being attacked by a dog that is incredibly tough, resistant to magic, and so strong and fearless it won't be afraid to take on one of the bears like the one that attacked you two. We've been living in very big trees, deep in the jungle, or in other caves and caverns like this one. The good news is he spends most of his time up at that lodge of his, or he's busy hunting some of the local wildlife."

Bella and Miranda had both been terrified with visions of massive dogs suddenly appearing out of nowhere, but now Bella frowned, "His lodge?"

She didn't understand why she asked that since it would not make sense that a hunter would not have a place to live, and besides where would he house all of those dogs?

"Yeah, Van Pelt lives in a hunting lodge on top of a hill that's fenced off to protect him from the more vicious animals in Jumanji," Ethel replied, "ever since we realised getting through to him, and trying to make him help us, protect us, was a waste of time, we have gone out of our way to avoid finding a place that's near his lodge. We don't want to make it easy for him to kill us both."

Bella shared a look with Miranda, both of them understood the point of that statement. It made perfect sense to them, but there was one thing Miranda wanted to be cleared up. "You went to the lodge to try to persuade Van Pelt to help you?" she asked incredulously.

Ethel nodded. "We were desperate, me and Mildred. We were constantly on the move, running into dangerous animals. Our magic barely worked against them. We needed help, and fast. Every day was a struggle just to live an hour! You have to understand," she went on, dearly hoping they understood where she and Mildred had both been during that time, "we were desperate for help. We were in a place we couldn't escape from, we needed help. We both thought that perhaps Van Pelt had just shot at us by mistake."

Okay, Mildred was the one who had voiced that thought, though even she had been dubious about the veracity of her statement at the time. Still, she had quickly learnt differently, and now Mildred would need to take a great deal of persuasion to go near someone else.

"It didn't work?" Bella placed her hand on her aunt's arm as comfortingly as possible, though she knew she was stating the obvious she couldn't think of anything better to ask.

Ethel shot her a look. "Nope," she replied darkly. "We tried to persuade him to give us some shelter, but he shot at us. We were forced to race back into the jungle, and we ended up hiding up a tree when he set those damn dogs on us. Mildred almost had her leg torn to shreds, but we managed to escape." (Ethel wondered whether it was a good time to tell them that the same tree was located near the chimpanzees who had very nearly killed them as well, but she decided not to; she wanted to tell them as much as she could about Van Pelt).

"Is he as resistant to magic as the animals are?" Miranda asked.

Ethel nodded, "We can use simple spells on him, but they don't last long. In fact, they seem to last on him less than the animals do; he just shrugs them off, so we have decided to try to think on our feet where Van Pelt is concerned."

Miranda and Bella shared another look with each other, but Ethel could very well see the fear on their faces. She didn't blame them; she, Mildred, Bella, and Miranda were all witches. They needed magic in order to survive, they used it all the time. The idea they were in a place where their magic wouldn't help them and would barely protect them was probably bad enough, but to find out there was a hunter out there gunning for them…

Ethel closed her eyes and hoped Mildred was alright.

* * *

On the one hand flying through the Jumanji sky at night instead of during the day was a good thing because Van Pelt couldn't see her if she flew too high in the sky, or into the light of the moon, but it was a bad thing also because there were other dangerous animals who could fly; birds like hawks or eagles who were just as indiscriminate as the animals on the ground, or giant bats.

Mildred didn't plan on going too far out away from the cave where she, Ethel, and now Bella and Miranda were staying in for the moment, because she knew only too well if she went out too far, she might not be able to get back, particularly if she missed the landmark the cliff where the cave was.

The good news was the moon was casting a great deal of light down onto the jungle, giving Mildred a good view around her. The moment she had left, she had seen the cliff face the cave was in, and she had used it as a starting point when she had gone out to look for Van Pelt.

The thought of the hunter made her stomach clench in fear. It had been ages since Van Pelt had turned up; that was one of the biggest problems with Jumanji, it was virtually impossible to keep track of time, so Mildred could only estimate she and Ethel had only seen the hunter a couple of months ago.

Mildred just hoped Ethel had told the two girls enough about the deranged hunter to make it clear to them it was not a good idea to wander off if they did then it was likely the pair of them would get killed. She just hoped her friend didn't get the idea into her mind to regale the girls with some of the more nastier stories about Van Pelt and what he'd done over the years, but she felt it was a good idea if the two girls were frightened enough not to go out of the sight of either herself or Ethel.

She wasn't surprised the game of Jumanji was still in Cackles Academy; the people the Great Wizard and the rest of the Magic Council had sent to the school to try to find both her and Ethel would have been looking for signs of forced entry, evil spells being used, that type of thing. The game would have been tucked away quietly in the school and would have gone unnoticed.

And it had, for thirty years. _**Thirty Years!**_

While she was flying, Mildred couldn't help but be amazed that suddenly she and Ethel had company now instead of being forced to toil away in this hellhole for the rest of their lives. She was just sorry two first-year girls from Cackles were dragged into this mess.

"Still maybe with these two girls we might finally be able to reach the Barrier and break through it, and maybe we might be able to get out of here," she thought privately to herself, knowing that presumably the same thought had occurred to Ethel as well (Mildred instantly shoved those thoughts out of her mind, deciding to worry about that little matter later even if it would mean their freedom - she had a job to do).

She wondered if Van Pelt had come back because of Miranda and Bella. It would make sense to both her and Ethel if that was the reason why the hunter was out tonight. Van Pelt had not been surprised in the least when they had first met him, so why would he be surprised now? Besides, both she and Ethel had the feeling the game and the hunter were so inexplicably connected he was able to track them so effortlessly; he had known they were there when they'd tried persuading him to give them some shelter long before they had managed to reach the lodge, that was the perfect proof in their minds.

Mildred was shaken out of her thoughts when the broomstick jerked, and she cursed angrily under her breath while she tried to regain control. This broomstick wouldn't last much longer, and she yearned not for the first time for a proper broomstick instead of this thing. The materials she and Ethel used to rig these things up were just as resistant to magic as the animals and Van Pelt happened to be, but they were capable of flight providing enough magic was shoved into them, but it just made them fall apart faster.

She decided to just get this over and done with quicker before the broomstick fell apart, but she was relieved she had the second broomstick strapped to her back. Swallowing her worries and her hopes the broomstick did not fall to pieces with her on it while she was high up in the air, Mildred circled close to the cave mouth while trying to drift slowly around the tops of the trees while she tried to get an idea of where Van Pelt was now while she tried her level best to stay as close as she could to the densest patches of leaves so the hunter wouldn't be able to spot her in the sky.

But Mildred was tense.

One of Van Pelt's favourite tactics to find out where she and Ethel, and now Bella and Miranda, were living was to alert them he was nearby, and then he would go quiet for a bit, and then wait for either one or both of them to appear then he would pick them off.

But Mildred needed to find out where he was because he would attack out of nowhere, and with the two eleven-year-olds back in the cave, they were even more vulnerable. Mildred and Ethel had both learnt to stay on their guard, and besides, when they figured out where Van Pelt was whenever the hunter played this sick game, it would give the other time to get ready to escape-

 _ **BANG!**_

Startled out of her reverie by the gunshot which had taken her by surprise, Mildred was relieved she was high up in the sky, the bullet whizzed right past her. She could hear the whine it made as it whizzed right past her left ear. The shock of the attack made Mildred curse herself for letting her mind wander; the arrival of the girls and the possibilities of breaking through the Barrier, at last, had gotten to her, and she had become distracted.

The attack made her jerk the broomstick around, and it was too much for the crudely put together broomstick since it had already been pushed to the limits.

The broomstick snapped.

* * *

On the ground, his muscles tense as he still held the old-fashioned but still effective breach-loading hunting rifle to his shoulder while he remained alert to the rest of the jungle surrounding him, Van Pelt had a twisted smile on his face as he watched one of the girls he had been tracking down for the best part of three decades suddenly plummet through the air. The smile quickly disappeared when the girl twisted awkwardly in the air and pulled another of those flying contraptions from behind her back.

Cursing a few choice Indian and African curses, Van Pelt watched as the girl managed to get onto the second broomstick and fly away.

* * *

Panting heavily, her heart pounding and her head awash with adrenaline as she fell through the air, Mildred twisted on herself in the air as she reached for the second broomstick now the first one was gone, relieved that both she and her friend had years of practice doing this type of thing, especially high up in the air.

While she was dearly trying not to think about what awaited her on the ground, especially with the trees below her, Mildred didn't bother to sit astride on the broomstick this time, there was no time to be graceful and elegant. When she was sitting astride on the broomstick, Mildred closed her eyes and shoved quite a bit of her magic into the broomstick to make it fly, but she poured in quite a bit. The broomstick took off like a rocket.

* * *

On the ground standing in the shadows of some trees with incredibly thick trunks and canopies that were dark with leaves and branches, Van Pelt lowered his rifle, glaring into the night sky as he watched the witch fly off. He wasn't particularly angry she had managed to survive, but he wasn't pleased either. Worse, he had tipped his hand, alerted the girls he was nearby when he could have taken his time, surveyed this part of the jungle, kept watch from the ground or in the trees once he had climbed up, but if there was one thing he had learnt as a hunter, it was that prey moved, so he would need to kill it before it escaped. Tricky sport, hunting.

Sure, there would be some prey which did not move frequently, but he should have remembered these girls were always on the move through Jumanji, and with two extra girls they would be able to reach and penetrate the Barrier. Van Pelt only regretted that although he could hunt the girls, he may not be able to fully bag them.

Still, he knew his duty as the hunter of this land, and he would perform it. He just wished he wasn't a contradiction; able to hunt down and shoot the prey, but unable to properly kill them since many of them developed cunning in order to survive here in Jumanji. Besides, he knew now where the girls were likely to be since he had watched through the target sighting of his rifle the girl flying towards the cliff. It was likely there were caves there, the perfect place for them to hide.

Van Pelt hefted his gun and moved off in the direction of the cliffs.

* * *

Until the next time...


	11. Chapter 11

I don't own anything.

Please leave feedback.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Bella let out a startled scream of shock when something flew into the cave, but she quickly relaxed when she saw it was only Mildred. After hearing the sounds of the distant gunshots which had frightened even Aunt Ethie, Bella had been frightened the brunette witch had been killed by the hunter so it was a relief to see Mildred was alive and well, albeit a bit shook up by whatever had happened out there. She and Miranda had been busily helping Ethel move everything light enough to carry with them in the meantime.

Not that Mildred or her aunt had much in the cave, to begin within the first place; the two older witches had learnt over the last thirty years not to get too attached to a place, or to lumber the place with things they didn't need.

Shortly after Mildred had left and Aunt Ethel had given them a brief summary about Van Pelt and what he wanted to do with them, Bella and Miranda had been put to work in finding the barest essentials; broomstick making supplies, the crude tools Mildred and Ethel had fashioned to help them with this and that; the sight of the crude tools had surprised Bella and Miranda, but only for a moment since witches didn't really need tools for things like building, but in a place where magic didn't seem to work as well as it should, it made sense Mildred and Ethel had learnt to adapt to their situation.

Aunt Ethel had been busy in a small corner that was loaded with food, and she had been packing and wrapping small amounts of food in small packages made from a type material that reminded Bella of basket waves, though this weave was much finer and less solid when Mildred came flying in, and at the return of Mildred, she instantly rushed over to the brunette witch, and after a quick chat which lasted only a few seconds the brunette witch was rushing around to help pack as many supplies as they could carry even on broomsticks which lasted only a few hours or so.

The little blonde witch had no idea where the two older witches planned to go, or even if they had a place to stay as far from the this Van Pelt and any of the dangerous animals and plants (Bella had no difficulty imagining vines that seemed to be alive; after hearing how there were plants out there that shot out poisonous barbs, her mind had gone wandering, and now she was sure her idea of fantasy and reality were radically different), but she had to trust her aunt and Mildred to get them out of here.

In the meantime Bella and Miranda both had to admit to themselves they were impressed by how quickly the two adult witches were in packing up and getting ready to leave; they had only been doing it for about five minutes, and to the untrained eyes of Bella and Miranda they thought they were pretty much done.

Mildred grabbed two pairs of the crude broomsticks and handed them to the two girls. "You are going to need more than one," she explained as the two witches took the broomsticks, realising that for the first time they were going to have to fly on broomsticks in a world where magic didn't work.

Bella swallowed, worried as she tried to estimate just how much time would pass before the broomstick fell apart, and judging from the worried look on Miranda's face, she was doing the same thing.

In the real world, both girls and other witches could turn an ordinary mop from the non-magical world Mildred lived in before she'd first attended Cackles into a broomstick, and it would work for as long as the witch liked, but here Bella was frightened the broomsticks would fall apart before they even flew out.

"Where are we going?" Miranda asked, and Bella glanced at her friend, wondering if she was going to get a straight answer, and she turned back to Mildred to see what the older brunette planned to say.

Mildred closed her eyes in exasperation, and she turned to Ethel. "You didn't tell them?" she asked in exasperation.

Ethel rolled her eyes. "Mildred, you'd gone out leaving us here," she said in a slow voice as if trying to drum the facts into Mildred's mind, "and we didn't have time."

Bella raised a sceptical eyebrow. She had heard that her aunt liked to save face by claiming she knew what she was doing the whole time, but Bella could see for herself that her aunt was clearly embarrassed.

Mildred sighed and closed her eyes in irritation. "Girls," she began, opening her eyes as she looked between Miranda and Bella, "at the moment we don't have much time, but we're hoping to get to the other side of the river. If we can reach the other side, hopefully by dawn," she was saying as she grabbed a couple more broomsticks and strapped them to her back, speaking all the time, "we can put a lot of distance between us and Van Pelt."

"How far away is the river?" Miranda asked.

"It's quite a way from here," Mildred replied not even bothering to hide the seriousness out of her voice, "when we get there we will have to land close to it, and switch brooms; you do not want to fall from one of these brooms into the river."

"Why, what's in there?"

Mildred threw back her head and closed her eyes in annoyance, but her exasperation was echoed by a disbelieving Ethel. "Haven't you listened to anything we've said?" the older Hallow asked. "There are dangerous animals in jungle rivers in Africa, South America, and India; there are also rivers. Put the two together."

Mildred shot Ethel a harsh look. "They wouldn't have asked that question and we wouldn't have been wasting time in this cave if you had bothered to tell them what we had in mind, Ethel," she pointed out and quickly spoke to Miranda and Bella about what was so dangerous about the river. "For a start the river is fast moving, though there are places where the river is still and quiet like the water in a pond; but in the main part of it, if you fall into it and you will be washed away by the current so quickly you would be lucky if you can be rescued. That is if what's in the river doesn't kill you first," she added in a rather morbid voice, which earned Mildred a rather harsh glare from Aunt Ethel, but Mildred shrugged, knowing it had to be said.

Bella swallowed, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Miranda's face was also frightened though it was clear her friend was wondering just how much more scary this whole mess could get.

"W-why, what's in there?" Bella asked in a very small voice that reminded her of Aunt Sybil, (part of her, the part which had pushed the never-ending manipulations of Ursula and Triton Hallow to the back of her mind, shouted at her Hallows did not get frightened, but her mother had always told her never to listen to her grandparents since their attitudes were as poisonous as pufferfish poison) as she looked between the two older witches.

"The river is full of crocodiles, alligators, caiman, and hippopotamuses," Mildred said grimly, her eyes haunted as she clearly remembered some other encounters with this river, "some of the most aggressive animals in rivers, only here they are even worse. If we fall into the river, well I don't think I need to paint a picture, do I?"

Ethel quickly interrupted when she saw the terrified faces of her niece and Miranda. "We'd better go now; Van Pelt is out there, and it won't be long before he finds us."

Motivation enough, the two younger witches joined their adult contemporaries and they took their positions and flew out, for Mildred and Ethel this was a practiced move, but for Miranda and Bella it was quite hard. The two young witches had already learnt from Ethel when Mildred had been out looking for Van Pelt the trick to using the homemade broomsticks in this world where the normal laws of magic were…. weird (the best description for it, but truthfully none of the witches knew what was happening to their powers in Jumanji) was to push much more magic than usual into the broomsticks.

While they knew that, actually doing it was different. At first, neither Miranda or Bella could actually get their broomsticks to get off of the ground of the cave. Mildred and Ethel, despite time pressing down on them since they knew it wouldn't take long for Van Pelt to work out where they were, glanced at each other and went back to help the two girls. It was a breach of the Witches code, but since this was Jumanji, and things were different here neither Mildred or Ethel really cared.

But when the two preteen witches finally got the hang of lifting off the ground, they had problems just flying. They had to push their magic into the broomsticks quite hard, so their flight was quite jerky and slow. Bella clung to the broomstick she had been given as it jerked long and hard, and for a terrible moment she was frightened the broom was going to throw her off, but somehow she was able to hang on to the thing she was flying on.

Bella closed her eyes and tried to force some more of her magic into the broomstick to keep it steady, but it only made the stupid thing shake.

She had always been an okay-ish broomstick rider, but truthfully it wasn't her best subject. She wasn't as afraid of heights as her auntie Sybil, but she was good enough to get through; she was just relieved her mother had made sure to teach her enough to make her succeed at flight to pass her basic licence tests. But here she was having to work twice as hard and use every single trick she knew just to keep in the air.

"It's okay, Bella," Bella turned and smiled happily when she saw her auntie Ethel who was flying next to her; now she was flying one of these homemade broomsticks for herself, Bella could now see the concentration and the strain on her aunts' face. She didn't know where Mildred was in all of this, but she guessed the older brunette was just as frustrated as she and Ethel. Merlin only knew how Miranda was taking this, given that she was slightly better at broomstick flying.

Bella glanced at her aunt out of the corner of her eye but she was afraid if she took her eyes off of the handle, the broom will jerk so hard she would fall off. "H-how did y-you manage to c-cope with this?" Bella stuttered.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ethel snorted. "We don't," she answered simply, "it takes time to get used to these stupid things." Ethel glared down at the handle of the broomstick, and almost as if the crude broom sensed the disdainful insult towards it, jerked hard, but Ethel who was more than used to the unstable attitude of the broomsticks made in this world where magic didn't work right, managed to hold on. Just.

"It's too bad we can't just walk on the ground," Bella whispered, but Ethel was meant to hear her.

"You can, but you've already had a taste of what it's like," Ethel said solemnly. "Flight's the best way to get around."

Bella nodded, and she heard Mildred's voice over her shoulder. "It's okay, Miranda, just take it easy," she heard the brunette say. Bella wished she could turn her head around to see what was wrong with her best friend, but the jerking of the broomstick she was riding put paid to that plan. Oh well, she thought to herself, I can always speak to her later.

Ethel looked her niece over. "You're doing well," she complimented.

Bella shot her aunt a quick look - which made the broom creak a bit, but she ignored it - and looked hopefully at Ethel. "Really?"

Ethel nodded. "Yeah. You're better than Mildred."

"I heard that," Mildred called, and Ethel laughed, not seeing Bella roll her eyes before the broom jerked again, unsurprised that her aunt still enjoyed poking fun at the woman whom she had been trapped within an evil, enchanted game for thirty years.

"You were meant too," Ethel called back, grinning, though Bella couldn't see how the brunette witch was reacting at that point.

"Where exactly are we going?" Miranda interrupted, struggling to hide her amusement of the banter between Mildred and Ethel so she could focus on what was going on.

All humour left Ethel's voice. "We told you-," she began, but Miranda interrupted. "Yeah, we know; we're going over the river, but what's the point?"

Mildred sighed. "We'll tell you when we land; it's easier to do it when we land than it is here. Only trouble is we're not landing on the ground."

What? Bella glanced at her aunt out of the corner of her eye - the broom was starting to shake a little bit, and Bella didn't want to take all of her attention off of it - questioningly. "How are we going to swap broomsticks?" she asked.

Ethel sighed. "We're going to be landing in a large tree on the bank of the river. It's one we often use when we cross the river to swap broomsticks, its quite a distance from the jungle, so monkeys and leopards don't use it much."

Bella swallowed, she didn't want to encounter any of those animals.

* * *

It took some time for them to reach the tree. By that time both girls could see why Mildred and Ethel both wanted to ditch the broomsticks they were currently using and change them over to something else, though Miranda couldn't help but think they were to blame for it though she could understand the need.

The homemade broomsticks had started to jerk more frequently as all of the witches had pushed more of their magic into them to keep them in the air while they flew as fast as they could to the river bank where the tree was. As they drew closer to the tree, the two adult witches slowed down their broomsticks with an ease Miranda marvelled at, but not by much; both Mildred and Ethel had spent thirty years in Jumanji making these things, so they knew what they were doing.

Much better than Bella and I, she thought to herself irritably when she and her friend both tried to slow down, and Bella was almost sent sliding off of the broomstick before the blonde managed to pull up the handle in time, which highlighted once more just how primitive these broomsticks were since they lacked the usual safety spells you'd get.

Mildred held up a hand to stop the younger witches from moving closer to the tree, and the brunette slowly approached the tree, holding up her hand and generating a small ball of light in her palm (Miranda wasn't surprised when she saw the broom Mildred was using jerk harder since the adult witch was concentrating her magic in two places, and from what Miranda could observe the ball of light seemed to be on the point of fizzling out if it wasn't for Mildred….) so she could see if the tree was uninhabited.

And it wasn't a rushed job either, Miranda noticed as she watched the older witch fly slowly around the tree, checking every branch from the thicker ones in the middle to the thinner ones at the top of the canopy.

"Does she really have to take so long, I want to get off this thing?" Miranda heard Bella ask her aunt, and she heard Ethel chuckle. "Oh, she does, and so would you if you've lived here for thirty years."

Mildred came back, extinguishing the ball of light - it was a full moon where the light from the moon was strong enough to pick out the features of the woman enough for Miranda to see how exhausted Mildred appeared to be; true, while she couldn't really see all of Mildred's features, and the light from the moon cast shadows over her face which made it slightly ghoulish, Miranda could tell Mildred was exhausted, and she wondered just how much magic she'd just used…

"It's clear," Mildred said shortly, apparently too tired to say any more, and she turned around and led them to the tree in a slow manner, not even bothering to push any more of her magic into the broomstick she'd been using, a broomstick that was probably as exhausted as the witch it had been ferrying here.

* * *

Van Pelt looked around the cave, his moustache bristling.

As Jumanji's hunter, he had senses that boggled the mind. He had a sense of smell which could put a dog to shame. He was using that nose now to sniff the cave. He grinned crookedly as he picked up the wealth of smells of his prey, recognising and identifying the scents belonging to Mildred and Ethel, which helped to screen out the scents of the newcomers he had been aware of from the moment they'd played the game.

He had seen Mildred, Ethel, and the other girls - he would learn of their names soon thanks to the game - fly out of an opening in the cliff face, and it had taken him a while to find the right footings in the dark to climb up the cliff face to find the exact cave they'd come from rather than simply shoot them out of the sky. He could have done it, of course, but even Van Pelt had his scruples.

In any case, he wanted to see the cave the girls had been languishing in for heaven knew how long since their last encounter to see how they'd been living off the land, but also so he could soak up their essence to better understand the girls and the impact the newcomers had on their lives now they'd appeared in the game, the realm of Jumanji where things like nature and reality were twisted and warped out of shape.

The cave was actually quite basic, he saw, but that was hardly surprising given how often he had hunted Mildred and Ethel, but also how the two witches had always been forced on the move from the tribes in Jumanji, moving from one place to the next, never fully able to live off the land in those areas long enough to get comfortable.

That was one of the downsides to being in Jumanji, really; with the need for energy which the players produced as they played the game, especially magical energy like the witches present in the game now, or those wizards a long time ago, the game did not want the players to be too comfortable since the more energy they gave off, the more nourishment the game leeched off.

In many ways it was galling to the hunter to be used as a means to motivate the players to keep on the move, but Van Pelt had learnt to live with it, especially when he took into account he was a part of the game himself, and in truth it was always good to challenge himself even if the game and the rules that bound it made it clear to him he couldn't go too far….

Van Pelt pushed his thoughts to the side and he continued to smell the cave, breathing in as much of the scent he was getting as possible. If he was going to be hunting these witches, he wanted to be aware and alert of what they smelled like.

* * *

"Here," Ethel was saying in the tree, and Bella watched as her aunt pushed something into Mildred's hands. "Some fruit. It will do you good."

"Thanks," Mildred said quietly, and Bella could see even in this awful light which wasn't helped by the shadows of the leafy canopy of the tree, Mildred took the offered fruit and pushed it into her mouth to chew on slowly. Bella listened as the brunette witch moaned with delight over the taste of the food.

"Hmm, that's good," Mildred commented out aloud in a whisper, "a few more like that, and I should be back to my old strength."

"Did you have to use so much magic?" Miranda asked.

"Yes," Mildred and Ethel spoke at the same time, and Ethel sighed, "Look, you two are still new to this place, but let me tell you; you do not want to share your living space with any animal here."

"There are animals in the real-world who will attack if they think you're a threat to them, but the creatures here are warped. We told you so ourselves in the cave," Mildred added, and although there was only a small amount of light filtering through the leaves, both Bella and Miranda could see the older witch's serious, if somewhat shadowy expression. "There are leopards here that will leap on you, monkeys and chimpanzees which will claw and beat you to death, and there are bugs such as ants that will either sting or bite you," Mildred rubbed her arm, Bella could see her rubbing a particular spot, and the young witch knew Mildred was speaking from experience. "I had no choice but to create that ball of light so we could be in this tree without worrying about anything being in here. Okay, so it took a lot of my magic out of me, but I'll be alright. We'll just wait for a bit, and then we can cross the river."

"But why?" Miranda suddenly asked, her voice strained with frustration. "Why do we need to cross the river? Where are we heading for?"

Bella watched as her aunt and Mildred exchanged a look, and from the little she could see Bella could tell for herself they were holding a silent conversation and Mildred broke the silence.

"We've been trapped in Jumanji for thirty years. When we first arrived we were confused, and we were both easily attacked by the animals out there in the jungle. There were people here, but they were against us. We only discovered we could build these basic brooms by chance," Mildred said, holding up the broomstick she'd been using to get here, "but when we did, we were able to cross large areas of the jungle we'd never managed before. Jumanji is a big place."

"We discovered there was some type of ocean here as well, but we didn't dare try to cross it because we didn't know how to build a boat or a raft, and besides we weren't sure what we'd find," Ethel broke in. Bella smirked for a moment when she saw how Mildred sent her aunt a look for her interruption before the brunette carried on.

"Yeah," Mildred said grudgingly, still sending Ethel a look Bella was sure was quite filthy which made the younger Hallow resist the urge to giggle, before she turned and softened her expression back at the younger witches, "God alone knows what's in that sea; if the animals in the jungle are bad, I do not want to know if there's anything worse out there."

Bella shuddered at the thought of sea monsters. Non-magical people had no idea just how lucky they were they didn't see many magical monsters out there, but when they did it usually ended up in an awful mess for all concerned. The idea of this place where the animals were bigger and more aggressive and were senselessly violent was bad enough, but the idea of sea monsters that would swallow them up whole was even worse.

"The broomsticks were crude, difficult to handle, but we soon got used to them, given time," Mildred went on, "we used them to fly all over the place while we tried to find places where we could find shelter, food, things like that while we kept out of reach of animals and people like Van Pelt. We'd already had enough experiences with them to last two lifetimes, never mind the one. And then we found it."

"Found what?" Miranda asked, intrigued, but both young witches heard the strange tone in Mildred's voice that immediately silenced their exasperation with the lack of any straight answer.

"We found a Barrier," Ethel said, "it's difficult to describe, but basically its like…like a dome, of clouded glass though there is usually a thick cloud of mist surrounding the Barrier, much like you'd find in a normal jungle, though in this one it covers a dome looking like regular clouded glass in what we assume is the heart of Jumanji."

"We only discovered it by chance," Mildred spoke now, her voice solemn as she was clearly lost in her memories, but what they were she wasn't letting on, "but when we did, it changed everything."

"In what way?" Bella asked, curious.

"Because we couldn't get through it, though we saw animals pass through it, either going in or out," Mildred explained grimly, "Ethel and I have both tried; we either tried to ride on the back of elephants or zebra - that they did not like, by the way - or on our broomsticks. The barrier stopped us; it was like running headlong into a brick wall. We both tried to go in together or singularly, but it was the same annoying result; we couldn't get through."

The jigsaw came together for the two young witches as they realised what Mildred and Ethel wanted, but there was still a lot neither of them really understood at this point.

"And you think because we're here with you-?" Miranda began, only for Bella to get there first, "we can all go through?"

Mildred and Ethel chuckled, clearly amused and pleased with the banter and with how Bella was quicker than Miranda, who seemed to take more time to think things like this through. "Yeah, that's basically it," Ethel said with finality.

"But why?" Miranda asked, determined to not be left out.

Ethel sighed, "Because we," she gestured between herself and Mildred, "think the Barrier may be a key to escaping Jumanji."

The two young witches looked at each other with excitement, both of them happily ignoring and forgetting the emphasis Ethel had placed on the word 'may' in her sentence, and both of them were excited before Bella remembered the word her aunt had dropped in.

"Hold on, why do you both think the Barrier's the key to getting out?"

Mildred sighed. "We're not entirely sure," she began hesitantly, "but the fact it exists gives us hope because its like glass, and that does not exist even in the most fantastic jungle unless it holds some purpose here. You have to bear in mind ever since Ethel and I arrived, we quickly lost hope of anybody else finding the game from the outside and realising what had happened to us. The same thing has probably happened to you too," she added, gazing at the two girls solemnly, "by now the school is probably going through a similar search while they try to find you both. And they will not find you unless they find the game, but even then it's unlikely they'll realise what's going on."

Bella went cold as she thought about the real world for a change. She had to admit Mildred had a point, even if she didn't like it. They had no idea how much time had passed since neither girl had a watch, but they were both quite tired. Who knew what time it was out there? For all, they knew it could be lunchtime, and even the teachers were not that unobservant, someone must have raised the alarm.

Bella remembered the story Morgan and Tasha had told her and Miranda in Mildred's old bedroom, of how the Magic Council had torn the school to pieces trying to find Mildred and Ethel when they'd originally disappeared. Was the same thing happening again? Bella's thoughts turned to her mother, and her heart clenched. Her mother had become a wreck when Ethel had been lost, Merlin only knew how she was coping in the real world with the news of her daughter's disappearance.

"Don't frighten them, Mildred," Ethel chided quietly, and Bella realised her aunt was looking deeply into her face. Ethel knew what was going on inside Bella's mind, but the younger girl didn't mind.

Mildred's head turned to the other witch. "They need to face facts, you know that," she said briskly before she turned to the two girls. "When you found the game, how many tokens were on the board?" she asked.

Miranda didn't even need to think. "Two," she said simply, "yours."

"Yeah, there were two, but now there are four; ours and yours," Mildred replied, "I think the game only works if there are more players than what it started out with originally. We started out with two, me and Ethel, but now you're here. We think its the only chance we have of getting out."

Miranda spotted a flaw in that plan. "But how can you be sure?"

"What?" Mildred asked in confusion, but Ethel rolled her eyes in frustration at her fellow witch's cluelessness. "I don't understand."

"How can you be sure if we all go through the barrier we'll get through?" Bella asked, feeling the same frustration as her aunt at just how obtuse Mildred Hubble could be.

Mildred sighed as she exchanged a look with Ethel briefly before she turned to the two young witches. "We're not certain," she admitted, much to the frustration of her listeners. "But it's the best thing we've got. The Barrier has to have a purpose, all we have to do is get to it."

The effort of speaking and the loss of so much of her magic in handling the broomstick clearly caught up with Mildred, and she slumped against the tree trunk. Ethel was immediately there. "You'd better get some rest, Mildred," she said quickly.

"I know," Mildred whispered, letting out a deep breath. "Let me…let me get some rest. Please."

"Okay," Ethel replied, though she desperately hoped Mildred was fully recovered by the time it was ready to go. "Get some rest."

With that, Mildred fell asleep and Ethel let out a sigh as she felt her friend's forehead. Mildred was sleeping naturally, one of the best cures for magical exhaustion, but she wasn't sure how long they could stay here before Van Pelt found them.

She turned around to the younger witches and saw they were settling down to sleep as well. "Get some rest," she told them both, "but we're going to have to leave soon."

While her niece and Miranda and Mildred all asleep, Ethel decided to join them. It had been a tiring flight out to the tree, and after listening to Mildred talk about the Barrier, Ethel hoped her friend was right. Ever since Miranda and Bella had arrived, Mildred had guessed that with all of them they might be able to pass through it.

Ethel hoped she was right. Like Mildred, she believed the four of them could get through, but she only hoped they could because if they couldn't get through the Barrier then they would be trapped in this cursed place forever.

Ethel was sure, if they did, she would likely commit suicide.

It was better than staying in this place.


	12. Chapter 12

I don't own The Worst Witch or Jumanji.

Feel free to leave feedback.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

The two young witches must have fallen asleep because they were shaken very roughly awake by Mildred and Ethel - Ethel looked tired, but that was nothing compared to how Mildred herself looked; the elder brunette witch was still exhausted by using her magic the way she had the night before when they'd arrived at the tree, but she had recovered enough strength to fly across the river. Bella and Miranda both looked at Mildred from time to time, seeing the exhaustion on the older witch's face as they crossed the river. They had been travelling over the river for a good twenty minutes, and both girls were still fighting their fatigue from the night before when Van Pelt had come after them. They had barely been given any time before they were given their fresh new broomsticks when they'd woken up, and they were forced to fly over the river.

Mildred looked down from her own broom, staring at the churning dark brown water that was churning with the speed of the current, but both Mildred and Ethel knew from long and hard experience there were more dangerous things in that river. She lifted her head and focused on Miranda who was flying right beside her while Bella was flying close to Ethel. All four witches had spare broomsticks just in case something happened to the ones they were using and the younger witches had no intention of losing them, not with what was in the water far below them; they could see hippos sticking their heads out of the water, and although they were too far above to see them, they could both see enough to know they wanted to stay as far from the hippos as possible.

As they flew above the river with all the witches in the group pushing their magic into the broomsticks, they suddenly heard a thunderous sound from somewhere ahead of them.

"What's that?" Bella asked.

"Is that… lightning?" Miranda looked up into the sky, but the two older witches weren't looking into the sky. They were looking ahead of them towards the other side of the river.

"No," Mildred replied, nodding above at the sky. "If there was lightning or a monsoon, you'd know it. "

Miranda stared at the older brunette witch confused. "What do you mean?" she asked Mildred.

Mildred didn't glance back - she was still suffering from her last night's foolish moves, and she didn't trust her own safety when they were crossing the river from above. "We've been in storms here, and they're a nightmare."

"Yeah, we'd have been drenched by now if we'd been caught by a storm, but we would have been burnt to death if we'd been struck by a bolt of lightning; we've seen patches of forests demolished by lightning in the past," Ethel dropped into the conversation then. "Take a good long look at the other side of the river, and you'll see what we mean."

Bella and Miranda both did what the elder witch instructed and they both looked at the other side of the river where they saw a stampede taking place, and they watched a number of elephants running with wildebeest, buffalo, and zebra crashing through the jungle levelling everything in their path, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake; Miranda's eyes widened at the sight of the massive elephants crashing into trees with trunks which were so wide the trees were so close together that it made moving between them virtually impossible… All of it smashed to pieces as the stampeding animals ripped through the jungle.

Miranda tilted the front of her broomstick down and she flew towards the swath of ruined and trampled jungle, swooping down quite fast, but Ethel's voice cracked out.

"Hey, Miranda, where are you going?" she asked.

Miranda turned her head, and instantly the broomstick bucked but she only just managed to regain control, though she very nearly fell off - something which did not go unnoticed to the two older witches. "We're going down there, aren't we?" Miranda asked.

"No," Mildred replied firmly. "We're not."

"Why not?"

Ethel turned her eyes towards her niece. "Do you want to be caught by a tiger or a lion so easily?"

"What?" Miranda paled, remembering where she was again.

"Yeah," Mildred replied solemnly before she went ahead with her explanation for the benefit of the younger witches, who seemed to have a death wish at this moment in time. "We've found the denser the trees, the harder it is for larger animals to get to us. And besides," she nodded her head in the basic direction the stampede had gone towards, "that's not the only stampede in the jungle; we could go through the ripped up jungle like you're suggesting Miranda, but we could be caught in the middle of another stampede, and we wouldn't be able to get out of it."

"And there's also the fact you had problems with flying your broomstick," Ethel pointed out slowly, making Miranda look up at her. "We've told you already the broomsticks we've made are homemade with materials where everything here is resistant to magic, so we have to be careful on them. We're flying broomsticks where longevity has replaced safety."

Miranda felt stupid. "So where are we going?"

"As far away from the stampede as we can get," Mildred replied. "We're also trying to get as far from the swamp as we can."

Ethel saw the expression on Miranda's face, but she didn't say a word about the feelings of the younger girl since she believed it was justified. None of them had time to move on, or to say anything else; a gunshot rang out. The bullet whizzed close to Ethel's head, buzzing loudly in her ears for a second so the blonde witch thought for a moment she was going to be rendered deaf, but she recovered quickly though the after buzzing of the bullet was still ringing and she looked around desperately for the source, Mildred got there first.

"Look!" she yelled, pointing down at the ground. Everyone followed the direction of her hand before more bullets whizzed past them, but they only came close by inches, though they were a long way off.

Bella's eyes followed Mildred's finger, expecting to see the hunter (she might not have actually seen Van Pelt, not yet at any least but she had an idea she would know him when she saw him), but she was surprised when she saw five brown-skinned people holding long rifles, but they were handling the weapons so clumsily and couldn't aim properly the younger Hallow wondered why they were bothering.

"Quick!" Bella jumped when Auntie Ethel's cry ripped through the air. "Let's get to the other side before they shoot us!"

Miranda and Bella didn't need telling twice, and they instantly flew towards the ground, making sure to stay as far from the swamp as possible - Mildred was happy this time the girls were listening to them, but she pushed that thought aside as they desperately flew to the ground, thankful that this bunch were only a step below Van Pelt's skills with a gun. The group landed heavily on the ground as far as they could get from the swamp and the churned and torn up part of the jungle, relieved they were out of sight.

Miranda and Bella were both out of breath and the two adult witches weren't any better. Once they had caught their breath, Miranda got out, "Who in the name of Merlin were they?"

"Remember how we told you we weren't the only humans in Jumanji?"

"Yeah. You said there were tribes out there.'

"We did. That particular band is one of them, only they use guns instead of just bows and arrows," Ethel said.

"They're one of those tribes who've been hunting us down for a long time, and they're one of the reasons why we are very, very careful about where we live, particularly in trees because they happen to live in them as well. They're not stupid, they know only too well how dangerous this place is," Mildred added.

"Well, of course, they would, they're a part of it," Ethel pointed out, making Mildred send her a withering look.

"I know, Ethel," she said in an exasperated tone. "I know."

Rolling her eyes at the banter, Bella tried to get everything back to the matter at hand. "Does everyone in Jumanji use guns, or is it an exclusive club or something?"

Mildred chuckled. "A few people use guns here in Jumanji such as Van Pelt and those guys who attacked us," she said, "but there are others out there, tribes people, and hunters…. People who don't come from this part of Jumanji, though we don't know where they come from and we don't know why they're there. Don't worry, they're not here and the moment. We'd know," she finished in a rather cryptic manner.

"How?"

"They usually tear the jungle to bits," Ethel replied eloquently.

"I think they're loggers - people who are sent out to cut down trees and take them away for god knows what," Mildred replied, knowing precisely what a logger was in the real world away from this hell hole, "but they usually stay away from this part of the jungle."

"Have you been shot by them?" Bella asked before she winced when she realised just how stupid that question actually was. Ethel and Mildred sent her a look that spoke volumes before they shared a look for a moment before Ethel sighed. "We'd better get going; we can actually walk for a bit so we don't give anyone a target if they find a way across the river."

She and Mildred shared another glance; both witches had learnt how to speak without words after learning each others' body language and expressions after they realised there was no way out of this jungle where they would be torn apart by animals or shot at by insane hunters. It was truly fascinating and insightful how the lifting of an eyebrow could be. The smallest gesture or motion could convey ideas to any receptive minds. Mildred and Ethel had both learnt they could have a verbal conversation at one moment with each other and yet they could have a totally separate 'talk' before switching to motions and expressions.

It had saved their lives on many occasions even though it had started out so simply; a few hand gestures and the lifting of eyebrows during moments when they had both needed to keep extremely silent had saved their lives so many times over the long years they'd been trapped in Jumanji. For Bella and Miranda, the moment was brief and they didn't know what they were looking at, they just assumed the two of them were just looking at one another to see what the other was thinking about a decision, or something like that - Mildred was unsure since she and Ethel would need a fair amount of time of getting to know the two girls who were now trapped alongside them in this hell hole of a game before they could learn to read each others' expressions. But for Mildred and Ethel, the moment was a lot more complex.

"We'd better get out of here," Mildred said, standing up before picking up her spare broomstick with a sigh. "We're going to have to make new broomsticks," she added to Ethel quietly.

"I know," Ethel replied with a sigh as she picked up hers, wishing she had a classic broomstick model. She checked herself; she had been trapped in this nightmare universe for so long, trying desperately to survive she had virtually stopped wishing for things she didn't have access to while she and Mildred went about as nomads, drifting from one crisis to the next while they struggled to find food and water to stay alive. But with the arrival of her niece and her friend, Ethel had begun yearning once more for things she had taken for granted.

Ethel immediately killed that thought, guessing it was being fuelled by the presence of her niece and Miranda and the hope they could finally discover what was inside the barrier. "How are you feeling?" Ethel asked Mildred in a whisper so neither preteen overheard.

"I'm a bit tired after using so much magic in a short amount of time," Mildred admitted, looking at her friend and letting the exhaustion show for the first time, and Ethel sighed when she realised Mildred was still not fully recovered from using all that magic.

"I wonder how far we can actually go without anything attacking us," Ethel mused, but Mildred shook her head at the blonde's never ending need to think about the downsides.

"We've got no choice. Besides, we can make fresh broomsticks and carry them with us, and if there's any trouble we can simply lift off, but I don't think I can fly any truly long difference, Ethel. I am worn out; the only reason I got across the river was that we knew it was a short distance across, and you knew we'd have to walk anyway."

Ethel nodded. She and Mildred had talked about it earlier while the girls were still asleep in the tree, and they'd come to the agreement they would walk so Mildred could regather her strength. The duo exchanged another look where they had another conversation via body language and expression, and Ethel turned to the young girls.

"Bella, Miranda," she began to get their attention.

Bella walked softly towards them. "What is it, Auntie Ethel?"

Ethel had to smile at that, amazed she was an aunt still, but a subtle poke from Mildred's finger made her remember what she needed to say. "Bella, Miranda," she said again, "Mildred's still tired from last night, so we're going to walk for a bit," she looked at both girls, and she wasn't surprised by their reactions. They were exactly as she'd expected; Bella's expression of fear reminded the older Hallow of Sybil, but she pushed that aside from knowing that being terrified of HB was nothing compared to what was lurking around them.

Bella and Miranda already had a taste of what walking around Jumanji was like, and they had probably been thankful they could use broomsticks here to fly so they would never be attacked like they had been yesterday. It was so hard for them to take in it had only been yesterday they'd just arrived in this nightmare, but Ethel and Mildred were over it.

"W-walk?!" Bella whimpered, sounding more like Sybil.

"We have to," Ethel replied. "We also need to make new broomsticks, so hopefully it won't take long," she added as reassuringly as she could for the benefit of her niece and her friend.

"Don't worry," Mildred added as she stepped towards the group. "As long as you're with us, you're gonna be okay."

"I thought you got around by flying?" Miranda said.

"We can't if we need food and water," Mildred reminded her, "sometimes we get food from trees, but Van Pelt has learnt to keep watch in the skies for us; you saw what he did last night, and those Indians who attacked us earlier - okay, so they're not Indians, but you get the gist - sometimes we do have to be grounded to get around so we don't use up too much of our magic."

While she was busy rolling her eyes at Mildred's babble, Miranda nodded at the logic. "How far do we need to go?" Miranda asked.

"Not far," Ethel replied. "Just far enough so then we can find what we need to make the broomsticks."

Mildred, meanwhile, was looking around briefly for a moment before she turned back to Ethel and the others. "We'd better go now; the longer we're here, the riskier it is for us."

* * *

While she was carrying a few bits and pieces for the broomsticks they were going to make later on when they were sheltered for the night, Bella was certain she was drenched in sweat a couple of hours later - she wished she and Miranda had a watch so then they could tell the time; the sky was so bright it was virtually impossible to tell where the sun actually was so then they could see time was marching along, but they didn't - as they walked through the jungle.

But she and Miranda, judging by how her friend looked, were both tired. They hadn't slept well the night before, they had both been kept awake by the sounds of the jungle nearby, from the calls of the lions, the roars of the tigers, the snorting huffs of the hippos, and Merlin knew what else.

They both wanted this journey to end, but what they couldn't get over was just how uncomfortable they were. Their Cackles uniforms were designed for academics, not for hiking long distances through a hot jungle.

Mildred was still recovering her strength, so she stayed at the back while Aunt Ethel went up front, and as she studied them both Bella could definitely see their body language. Neither of them had relaxed in any way since this little trek had begun; both of them were both completely alert, looking around themselves carefully to make sure nothing was nearby, and indeed Ethel would make them wait for a few minutes before stating it was safe for them to move on, showing her aunt took this task very seriously.

At first, it had annoyed both Miranda and Bella, but they had both been shot down by the older witches who said they could be attacked by tigers or snakes, and they wouldn't have stood a chance because they'd been attacked by surprise. After that neither Bella or Miranda had said anything more, they just helped the two older witches gather the bits they needed for broomsticks. It surprised the two girls that truthfully they didn't need to look for anything specific to make the broomsticks; they just needed a long stick like a thick branch, or a cane of bamboo, with rushes or twigs bunched together to form a tail end.

Mildred and Ethel both had crude knives made from sharpened stone, which they used to hack and slice away at whatever they needed to get what they wanted, though for some things they needed to take their time by all accounts. Not this time, for which Bella was eternally grateful for since she didn't want to spend too much time hanging around a clump of bamboo trees. They found a couple of old tree branches which had been snapped off their trunks by the stampede, so that wasn't the trouble. The trouble was walking through the jungle while their arms were laden down with everything they needed to make the brooms.

"How much further are we going now?" Miranda whispered, taking Mildred's warnings about keeping their voices down seriously.

Ethel looked back at her. "Not far," she said. "We've got to find a large enough tree."

Bella, hearing this, groaned. "Oh no, not another tree.'

"Stop moaning," Ethel said sharply. "We're going to have to go into a tree, and trust us; living in trees are safer than living on the ground, but only just."

Ethel wished she could kill herself when she saw Bella and Miranda exchange a really scared look, though they had already gathered enough from the last night it would not be peaceful; they had drifted between sleep and wakefulness earlier, and they'd occasionally been shocked by the sounds from the animals that lived in Jumanji. They'd been soothed by Ethel, and by Mildred when the brunette felt strong enough to actually do it, but their first night in Jumanji had been far from pleasant.

Mildred and Ethel were used to it, but they had grown up with it in their ears. Their first night had been as bad here as Bella and Miranda's first night, so they sympathised with them.

The party moved on for - Miranda and Bella were both unsure, but they estimated it was an hour - before they came across a particularly large tree. Miranda gave it a once over, guessing Mildred and Ethel were going to choose it because it's gnarled, twisted appearance that put her in mind of nature being warped and twisted so much the tree itself had started out as pure as the trees in the real world before being corrupted.

The canopy was like a leafy curtain, but underneath the tree branches were vines. Thick and strong ones.

"That one?" she nodded at it, glancing at the two adult witches.

Ethel and Mildred exchanged another look, Mildred inclining her head in agreement. "Don't see any reason why not," Mildred whispered.

"How are going to get up?" Bella asked, looking at the pieces of broomstick in everyone's arms.

Ethel pointed at the vines. "We're going to climb," she said.

"Climb?!"

"Trust me, you'll get used to it," Mildred said while Ethel was already walking over to the vines after carefully putting down the broomstick supplies. The blonde took one and tested its strength before she began using it to climb up. When she was in the tree, Ethel took a moment to look around, finding the branches were wide enough for them to walk on and strong enough to take their weight, and there was a large part they could use to rest in and make the brooms and cover the distance, hopefully, to the Barrier.

She went back to the branch she had climbed onto and knelt down. "It's okay so far," she said to the others. "You'd better pass up the bits and pieces."

Mildred nodded and she picked up the pile Ethel had left behind and she gently tied them with the vines, Ethel bent down and pulled the vine up slowly while Mildred stood underneath in case anything dropped to the ground. After seeing what Mildred and Ethel were doing, Bella and Miranda grabbed a couple of vines and tied what they had to them. While Miranda's bundle fell out of the vines, it took only a short amount of time for them to get into the tree. The hard part was getting the girls into the tree since they were not used to the idea of climbing, but Mildred Hubble seemed to have anticipated that; she was the last person to climb the tree, and she helped both Bella and Miranda climb up the tree.

Dinner consisted of a number of fruits picked by Mildred while Ethel looked after the girls. With Ethel's help, Miranda and Bella both learnt how to make broomsticks while Mildred went out to find some food. The brunette was gone about an hour, and when she came back she was carrying a number of coconuts and some fruits like bananas and mangos, and she'd also found some watermelons.

But dinner consisted mainly of a few fish Mildred had caught in a nearby stream - Miranda, remembering the dangerous animals lurking in lakes and rivers, was not sure she wanted to know how the witch had gotten hold of them.

"I hope you're not allergic to any of this," the older witch said while Ethel took the net sack woven with vines Mildred and Ethel had made and stashed inside the satchels both carried.

Bella shook her head while she and Miranda helped Mildred and Ethel prepare the food while the older blonde went down to the ground with the vines, and brought back a number of thick but fairly rocks which were brought up when the blonde put them in one of the net bags and it was pulled up by the vines along with some rushes and some wood.

Watched by Miranda and Bella, the two witches began carefully placing the rocks down on the wood before they placed the wood Ethel had collected on it before Mildred clicked her fingers and the wood caught alight. After carefully removing the bark from some of the remaining wood, they impaled the fish so they could cook it. Bella flinched and she knew she would have bad dreams about that moment for the rest of her life, impaling a fish on a stick of wood, but she quietly held the fish to the fire like the rest.

"Sorry there's no seasoning," Mildred apologised while she prepared the fruits to go with their meals. She used one of the stone knives to crack open a hole in the coconuts to get to the milk but also to the flesh inside the coconuts.

Bella shook her head, though she wished they had fish the way mum made it. Lovely fried fish, wrapped in a casing of batter or covered in breadcrumbs, or poached salmon. But this would have to suffice.


	13. Chapter 13

As always I don't own The Worst Witch or Jumanji.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

When they woke up in the tree the next morning, already feeling the near-oppressive humidity in the air, Miranda looked around at everyone in the tree and had to stifle a groan they were still there in Jumanji. After a quick and simple breakfast consisting of just fruit and whatever leftovers that were lying around from the night before, Miranda looked at the two adult witches who both ate their food quietly without haste as though they were savouring the taste of it because they knew it would be a while before they ate something like this again.

Miranda hoped that was not the case because it implied they would be travelling for the whole day without any type of rest, but in this place, she would question anyone if they said the sky was blue. Putting that behind her for the time being and deciding to just wait to see for herself how the day panned out, she looked at Ethel and Mildred.

"When are we going?" she asked

"Soon as we finish," Mildred replied. "We've got a long day ahead of us so you two had better finish up quickly."

"Are we walking?" Bella asked, sending a look that was part wariness and part fear for what would be waiting for them hidden in the shadows.

Ethel chuckled as she looked at her nice. "No," she replied reassuringly. "We're going to be flying." The for as long as our broomsticks last did not go mentioned, but then again they didn't really need to since they knew how long they'd last.

She tried to suppress a sigh of relief, but one passed through Bella's lips before she could stop it happening. "Oh, Thank Merlin," the small blonde girl muttered under her breath, but everyone heard her.

Mildred spared the blonde a smile. It hadn't taken Mildred long but she had already worked out Bella was a mix of Esmerelda and Sybil, which made sense.

"We'd better get moving," she said practically, grabbing one of the brooms which had been made the night before and she looked out of the tree to look around at the ground to see if it was safe for them to climb down, making her briefly wish they could just lift off out of the tree without spending so much time on the ground, making sure it was safe for them to climb out of tree. But the trunk and the branches were so twisted and gnarled it was virtually impossible for them to fly out without either smacking into one of the branches, being snagged by a thorn like branch that had been twisted out of control over the years, or smashing through the canopy.

With a mental sigh, Mildred slowly poked her head out… and instantly dropped back. "Keep quiet!" she hissed.

"What's wro-?" Miranda asked, but Mildred instantly slapped her hand against the younger witch's face.

"Shut up!" Mildred hissed again. "Don't say anything. I just saw people from one of the tribes. They're too close."

Bella's eyes widened in terror as she remembered what Mildred and Ethel had told her and Miranda about the people in Jumanji, and she instinctively ducked her head down out of sight. Miranda, after shaking off Mildred's hand over her mouth, did the same thing while Ethel crawled over to the edge to peer out through a thick bush of leaves. Mildred did the same.

Miranda, curious, crawled over slowly to a bush of her own, followed by her friend as quietly as they dared. The two younger witches did not like what they were seeing.

It was impossible for the younger witches to hazard a guess over how many people were walking through the part of the jungle the witches had taken over as a small place to stay for the night because a few of them were moving quietly through the bushes and the trees that were just out of sight.

Bella shivered as she took them in. They were dark skinned with thick, but brittle hair that resembled dark dry grass that had been left in the sun for a month before being partially incinerated in a fire. But the things that frightened the young blonde witch was the stark white warpaint and their weapons, a mix of stone axes, spears, clubs and knives.

They moved with such precision, barely making a sound, almost like ghosts as their heads and their eyes whipped here and there every time a branch creaked, and their comparison to ghosts proved apt since they didn't let out a sound. Bella took notice of their serious expressions quickly and guessed they were making sure none of their people was attacked, either by the animals that lived in Jumanji or by one of the other tribes.

This was obviously a dangerous territory, and they knew it.

But then Bella saw something that made her open her mouth to scream, and she would've done if Mildred or Auntie Ethel - she couldn't say which one yet since she had her back turned - hadn't slapped her hand against her mouth to stop her before she checked herself in time though it would've been too late she would have screamed loud enough to wake the dead, which seemed appropriate considering what she was seeing. Oh, she was going to have nightmares for the rest of her life.

In the centre of a large circle, protected by warriors brandishing wicked looking weapons, was a tall man wearing some kind of dark robe made out of woven grass, with a wizened-looking face which looked like every drop of life had been bled out of him. The white warpaint decorated his face and his body was different, it seemed more symbolic somehow… but that didn't matter when she noticed the heads attached to a bandoleer of some kind of rope made out of some hemp.

Heads.

Actual human heads.

They were shrunken little things, with their remaining skin stretched tightly across the skull, darkened and mummified. The eye sockets were open black voids, the eyeballs had long since rotted away. Except for one; that particular head looked quite fresh like it had only just been cut off… Bella quickly closed her eyes to shut out the horrific image that conjured itself up in her mind, of a barbaric ceremony where someone's head had just been chopped off, the sound of screaming piercing through the air before it was cut off...

Bella started to shake, wishing her mother was there with them so she could hide inside her arms while she tried to exorcise the image of the heads out of her mind. She felt someone gently take her into their arms, and she recognised the person as her aunt. She realised Ethel must have seen the emotions play across her face and was trying to offer her comfort. Bella snuggled into her aunt, shaking with fear while her mouth scrunched up all over the place to stop herself screaming.

Miranda herself was also wrapped up in Mildred's embrace - somehow the older witch had managed to sneak up behind her and take the younger witch into her own embrace to keep her steady. Miranda was grateful to the older witch for that, she could see out of the corner of her eye Ethel had a similar hold over Bella to stop her friend from screaming at the sight of the heads but she had no idea if Mildred had only started to hug her and Ethel had followed her friend's example, or if it was the other way around…

She instantly pushed that thought aside, deciding it wasn't fair to either her friend, Ethel, or Mildred; Bella had started to attend Cackles under a cloud without knowing what had happened to her aunt, Ethel had only just discovered that her sisters had built a life of their own but had never forgotten her and were afraid of what had happened to her for thirty years, and Mildred was just being kind.

The troop moved slowly through the undergrowth and even when the last of them disappeared into the jungle, Mildred and Ethel didn't take their hands away from the girls' mouths. Both of the adult witches were experienced with the tribes in Jumanji to know it was too dangerous to move with the Headhunters nearby, and the girls didn't dare move as a result when they realised that. Finally, after a good few minutes, Mildred and Ethel cautiously removed their hands from Bella and Miranda's faces as though afraid doing so would bring the Headhunters back. Miranda glared at them both insulted; Ethel was not impressed, after being on the receiving end of more than her own fair share of glares from Esme and Sybil, Miranda's glare was nothing.

"Why-?" Miranda began to ask, but Mildred held up her hand.

"Keep it down. There may still be scouts around," Mildred warned.

While Miranda took a deep breath to calm herself, Bella looked between her aunt and Mildred desperately. "We can't stay here," she said in a voice that was either verging between whining or pleading - Miranda didn't know which, "they might come back-."

"We know," Ethel interrupted her niece as gently as she could, falling back on the gentle way she had spoken to Sybil whenever her little sister had been afraid; it may have been thirty years and she hadn't really needed to use it since Mildred was more confident than Sybil was despite their completely different backgrounds, but some things never went away. "That's why we're staying here in the tree until we're sure they're gone, but they might have scouts out there. They usually do."

Miranda blew out a slow, quiet breath, feeling she had calmed down sufficiently to speak rationally again. "Who were they?" she asked; she felt a little bit stupid for asking the question the way she did, but she couldn't summon any words out of her repertoire to offer a different question.

Ethel turned to her seriously. "We don't know what they call themselves, or indeed what the other jungle folk in Jumanji call them, but we call them Headhunters, for obvious reasons."

Mildred nodded, gazing grimly at Bella and Miranda. "They're one of the most warlike bands out in the jungle; it makes sense, given their religion. They worship some kind of god that demands sacrifices. We've seen the Headhunters attack villages, go after fishermen, and take them back to their own village where they judged to see if they're worthy of being sacrificed or not. We don't know how it works, but from what we've learnt, the Headhunters spend a lot of time and ritual to see if someone can be sacrificed or not. One minute they're not there, the next..," Mildred's voice trailed off, painting a nasty picture in the minds of the younger witches.

"And if they're not worthy of being sacrificed?" Miranda whispered in a very very small voice, guessing from what Mildred was telling her that even if they were unworthy of being sacrificed to this god, they would not be let go.

Mildred sighed and glanced at Ethel momentarily before turning her head back to the younger witches. Miranda and Bella both knew from the look on Mildred's face this was not going to be pleasant. "They're killed," the brunette said grimly.

Ethel winced when she saw how Bella and Miranda both took that blunt reply, and she wondered to herself just when Mildred had become so…jaded. It was a far cry from how she had been before, but this place had changed them both beyond all recognition. She decided to move the topic along so then neither girl became worried.

"We'd better stay here in the tree for a bit," the older Hallow said instead, "it's too dangerous to get out now."

Miranda had visions of those HeadHunters lying in wait in the bushes ahead. "Will they come back?" she asked fearfully.

"Not unless they think someone's here," Mildred replied, her expression still grim while all of her attention was fixed on the ground below. She had moved away from the main group and was now scanning the ground unblinkingly for any sign of the Headhunter's return. "They go for anyone they find. We've seen them go after Van Pelt a few times, but they don't learn from their mistakes. Van Pelt is always armed with that rifle, and he has sent back corpses a few times."

Bella shuddered.

Mildred saw her reaction. "Sorry, Bella," she apologised, though the younger girls could tell she was telling the truth, though she wasn't sorry about emphasising the number of dangers in this place.

They stayed in the tree for over three hours. They didn't dare speak in case the HeadHunters overheard them, though the younger girls were frightened more because they didn't want to end up sacrificed and get their heads chopped off. Mildred and Ethel felt the same way, but their fear of the HeadHunters also extended to the other tribes. The two witches had gone out of their way to steer clear of the other tribes because they simply didn't know what they were capable of or what they even wanted.

Finally, Ethel let out a breath. "I think it's safe to get out now," she said, glancing at Mildred to gauge her reaction. The brunette mulled it over in her mind for a second, thinking of the pros and cons before she nodded. "Okay, but we lift off as soon as we're out of the tree. The sooner we get away from here the better."

Bella and Miranda both nodded fervently in agreement with the plan before they started climbing down the tree. Ethel went first and she looked left and right, reminding Miranda of the small blackbird that had flown into her garden and looked around for her mother's cat before proceeding to forage worms and other insects.

Ethel made a small gesture with a hand, and Mildred patted Miranda on the back to signal she go down second. Once the young girl was safe on the ground, Ethel immediately took her hand into her own, and Mildred patted Bella on the back to climb down next. Bella looked at the gnarled vine fearfully, but she took a deep breath to fortify herself and she started climbing down awkwardly, cursing her academy uniform which really wasn't designed for this type of activity never mind the climate.

When she reached the ground, Bella stumbled about as she tried to get her balance right, but Ethel quickly took hold of her and held her steady while Mildred gently but quickly shimmied down the vine next. Once they were all together, they got on their brooms and lifted off the ground… but before they could lift off Bella screamed when, out of the bushes, a number of HeadHunters leapt out of the bushes.

Startled by the scream, Mildred and Ethel were too slow to react to the attack, but they recovered quickly - but it was still too late for them to react. Mildred wheezed when a dark brown blur smashed into her chest and knocked the air out of her lungs and knocked her to the ground right into the tree. Mildred let out a wheezing and hoarse cry of pain as her shoulder smacked into the trunk while the warrior straddled her, pressing down on her chest with his sheer weight.

For a moment breathless and with an aching shoulder the two stared into the eyes of each other. The HeadHunters were one of the ugliest people's in Jumanji, but you didn't see that unless you were really close and personal. The warrior currently straddling Mildred's body and pressing her down into the hard mud had broken teeth in his mouth with others were in different states of rot, and several of the gums were bleeding even now. The sight of the man's face and the smell of BO from the warrior made Mildred sick just to look at him, but she didn't have time to think of a curse to get him off of her because she felt a prick in his neck reminding her of those jabs she'd had over her childhood before she went to Cackles and suddenly, it all went black…

"MILDRED!" Miranda screamed when she saw the dark-skinned man straddling her suddenly lift up his hand and slap Mildred's neck; she caught sight of a black spike in his grip, but whether it was poison or not she didn't have time to think though she had already seen Bella herself be silenced with a similar spike, so she hoped her friends were still alive. The HeadHunter holding onto her hands yanked hard, his grip squeezing so tightly she thought the bones in her wrist would crumble under the pressure, pulling her along. She tried to pull her hand away, but it was no use; he was just too strong, and he kept pulling her along. Miranda flexed her free hand, summoning up her magic to unleash a nasty curse while she dug her heels in.

The HeadHunter's head swung around like a wildebeest, growling and snarling something to her in a guttural language she didn't understand, but she could guess what he wanted since he was tugging her along. But he was where she wanted him; Miranda lifted her hand and threw the curse into his face.

The warrior reflexively let go of her and slapped a hand to his face with a cry of shock, and Miranda turned around to run off - only to see another HeadHunter in her way, but then she felt a slight pain in her neck, and it all went black….

* * *

Miranda came too with a cry of shock. "Oooh!" she groaned.

The moment she woke up, she thought she heard familiar if distant voices.

"She's awake!"

"I know!"

"Oh, not now you two, please!" a familiar voice, though they were all familiar voices said reprovingly, "I think she's about to wake up."

Encouraged by that though she was slightly surprised because she hadn't even known herself she was about to open her eyes yet, Miranda slowly opened her eyes and looked up into the face of her best friend, Bella, and to the left and right were Mildred and Ethel. All three of them looked slightly sick, but otherwise, they were healthy.

She sat up quickly, and instantly she felt so dizzy her vision began to swim. "No, don't lie back down. You're tempted to lie back down, you've got to fight through their potion. The effects of the dizziness should pass," she heard one of the two adult witches speak, but she was just too dizzy to really tell who it was, and she felt two strong arms slide underneath her armpits and roughly pull her upwards a bit, making her whine in protest.

"No," the adult witch spoke sternly, "you need to concentrate your way out of the effects of the potion the HeadHunters gave you. Try to stand up properly, and walk; I'll help you, but you need to concentrate."

Miranda cursed whoever it was who was making her walk, but she didn't have any choice in the matter. She stumbled a little bit while her brain tried to reboot, but it didn't take her long before she was able to walk properly again, though she kept stumbling and the older witch, whether it was Mildred or Ethel, just refused to let her go. Miranda was thankful for that, especially when her legs nearly gave out from beneath her.

As she relearnt how to walk again, she overheard Bella ask, "Why is she having more trouble walking than we did?"

"They must have given her more of the potion, or it could have been stronger?" Miranda heard the second adult witch reply, though it was clear she herself didn't know.

"Potions?" Miranda jumped on the word. "These people have magic?'

"Well, no," the witch holding her spoke, and Miranda turned her head slightly to the side to look at the other witch, and through her bleary vision, she caught sight of the basic features of the woman. Remembering what Mildred and Ethel had urged her to do, Miranda concentrated and tried her best to push the effects of the potion out of her system so she could be in charge of herself again, and it worked more or less because she could see that whoever was holding her had dark hair, meaning it was Mildred.

"What do you mean?" Miranda asked, hoping for more information she could use to pull herself out of this nightmare where she felt as though she'd just drunk potions back in their own world that had the same effect the one the HeadHunters had apparently used while flying in circles until she had become so dizzy it was a wonder if she could even walk. "Why do you call them potions?"

"We don't have any other name for them," Mildred said, "they're basically a mix of different plant ingredients the HeadHunters cultivate and blend together in a brew, making them similar to what witches do; they probably have a different name for them, but we call them potions. I mean, its better than calling them soups."

"Oh," Miranda replied, feeling slightly stupid for even asking as it was so obvious. She looked around, suddenly realising how dark it was here, but because her vision was clearing up she saw Ethel and Bella's faces begin to sharpen, but she had no idea where she was, whether she was in a cave like the one she and Bella had been taken to after they'd been rescued from that bear or a hut of some kind.

"Where are we?" Miranda asked, wanting to move on and focus on something else.

"We're in the HeadHunter's settlement," Ethel's answer was grim. "We're not alone. Look."

Mildred needed to help Miranda turn on her feet so she was looking in a certain direction, and with her recovering vision it didn't take her long to see a small number of people who were clearly not HeadHunters on the other side of a set of tree logs which were studded with sharp pieces of either rock or metal resembling giant thorns, like a giant stalk of a rose bush.

"Who are they?" Miranda asked.

"Probably people they've captured from raids, or people unlucky enough to wander into their path," Ethel said, and Miranda watched as the elder Hallow looked at the people on the other side, though Miranda was not one hundred per cent sure about how Ethel was feeling about them.

Bella sniffled. "We're going to be sacrificed, aren't we?"

The tearful question made Ethel turn to face her niece, making her instinctively hug the little girl. "Not if we can help it," Ethel whispered into Bella's blonde hair, turning to look at Mildred worriedly, wondering if their luck had just run out.

They knew the HeadHunters, and so did the people in the adjoining cage. Bella and Miranda didn't, but hopefully, the tribe hadn't learnt from the mistakes they'd made with them the last time they were in their tender clutches.

* * *

Until the next time.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer - I don't own anything.

I'm so sorry it's taken me a while to get this chapter out, but I hope you will agree it was worth the wait.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"They certainly know how to be romantic, don't they?" Ethel commented wryly as they watched the ceremony the HeadHunters were busying themselves with. She, Mildred, Miranda and Bella was now trapped inside a wooden cage that had been lifted above the ground so they were overlooking their village/town, whatever.

The small group of witches had been trapped in the prison hut for what seemed like ages while they had listened to the activities outside the hut; there hadn't been any sounds from the HeadHunters to indicate they were preparing for one of their rituals, so the girls had been left to sit quietly in their cell. Bella had tried to make overtures of friendship to their fellow inmates, but it seemed even being imprisoned and being neighbours did not stop them from being hostile. Ethel had managed to grab Bella before one of the native savages could harm her from the other cells, and she had told her niece not to go near them again, though Bella's expression of fear had spoken volumes and made it clear the preteen was not going to try it again.

While they had been waiting, they had tried to come up with any kind of plan to escape, but it was mostly to keep their morale up.

The Chief had personally arrived at the prison hut with a number of warriors and they had manhandled the natives out of the hut - the natives had tried to put up a fight, but there had been too many HeadHunter warriors for them to fight, but Ethel had to admire them for even bothering though it wouldn't have made any difference. She guessed they knew their life expectancies were down, but they decided to try to go out fighting which to them was more likely to be a better option than having their heads cut off for the tribe's sick collection.

Ethel ground her teeth angrily, though not without too much force. She hated not being able to really use her magic in this place. She knew if they were back in their own world she would be able to curse them, badly! It was the least they deserved.

No sooner had the natives gone, but the High Priest and several of his acolytes and the Chief returned. The High Priest and his entourage had chanted in their guttural and grunting language, sprinkling Ethel and the other girls with some green coloured water, blowing some strange powders into their faces while the Chief watched with a cruelly twisting smile on his face.

While she had been blinking some of the powder out of her eyes after it had been blown into her face for the third time, and she had lashed out at them to stop doing it, earning her a slap around the face, while Mildred told her to keep calm, but the older witches had shared a look of dread. They both knew the HeadHunters were up to something big, but they didn't know enough about them to know what it was.

But they soon got their answer; Ethel couldn't believe that for all of their strange language which made no sense, but they probably thought the same as the witches - the HeadHunters could not understand English, but they made up for that with sign language. They actually knew some basic sign language, though they made it easy by bringing two warriors who were close to Mildred and her age, and they also brought in a couple who had some kind of fang necklace around both of their necks, but there was a piece of stone jewellery in the centre of the necklace, and then Mildred and Ethel had noticed a similar necklace but with a completely different stone jewellery design in the centre around the Chief's necklace.

The Spell had dropped in Ethel's and Mildred's minds when the Chief had placed a necklace around their necks and around the necks of the two warriors, both with matching stone jewellery.

The necklaces were the HeadHunter version of magical wedding rings. The Chief was betrothing her and Mildred to the warriors, but none of the witches knew what was going to happen to Bella or Miranda, and the Chief refused to tell them though whether they could actually understand the gist of what the chief was saying, the witches had no idea.

The reactions to her comment were mixed.

Bella shuddered.

Miranda gulped.

Mildred was silent, though she turned her head away from the image in front of them. The HeadHunters had dragged the natives and the witches from the cell to the place of sacrifice. While the witches had been shoved into a cage which had been lifted above the ground so they couldn't escape, the native prisoners who'd been caught by the HeadHunters were not so lucky.

All around the witches could see the heads collected by the tribe over the years, each of them in differing states of decomposition, and placed within special wooden recesses or cups, and as the ceremony went on it seemed every member of the tribe had come out to watch the grisly spectacle.

For Ethel and Mildred the sight of the tribe was nothing new - they had seen enough of the HeadHunters during their time in Jumanji to not be that surprised by them or by their appearance, but Bella and Miranda watched with interest since it took their minds away from what could await them while their older counterparts were fated to become wives to two warriors.

Like the men, the women were hideous creatures, only they were much thinner and smaller. Each one of them wore a set of clothes that put Bella in mind of a woven grass dress, or a poncho, while they wore crude sandals. They had long, scraggly hair, but the most disturbing thing about them was their eyes. They had big, massive eyes that seemed to bulge madly from their faces. Between the men and the women were the children of the tribe.

The boys were just miniature versions of the adult males. They carried smaller versions of the weapons the adult warriors used as well, showing they were destined to become warriors like their dads. The girls, likewise, were smaller carbon copies of the adult women in the tribe, right down to their small ponchos and sandals.

While the children weren't completely hideous to look at for the witches in the cage as they stood very still and watched the proceedings of the sacrifice with eager anticipation on some faces and pure sadistic glee on the others, it wasn't difficult for either Bella or Miranda to see they would become like their elders. More than a few of the children were smiling with bleeding gums and rotten, stumpy teeth, and the girls had identical bulging, insane eyes like the older women.

There were quite a few teenagers in the village, and they were standing close to the older generations of the HeadHunter's tribe, and most of them were already just like them in appearance which made it hard for the witches to tell the difference. While it looked like the roles of the people in the tribe were fixed from one person to another, the witches noticed quite a few young people wearing miniaturised versions of the robes worn by the High Priest's acolytes. Miranda noticed how one of those children was given a great deal of respect by the other children, whereas the others were slapped around by the others before the ceremony began. The new acolytes to the High Priest were left strictly alone and everyone bowed low to them which indicated their status within the tribe, but Miranda noticed more than a few of the next generation of acolytes seemed to enjoy the very real fear from the others. She guessed the new acolytes were mostly composed of bullies or children who had been bullied in the past but they now had the power to protect themselves and get away with whatever they wanted.

The idea of people abusing the power granted to them was nothing unusual for Miranda.

She had heard stories of witches and wizards who had abused the power of their roles simply because they believed themselves above it all. Sadly, Miranda had met quite a few children from magical families who already acted as though they had been given one of the Merlin or Morgana Awards, or had been apprenticed to a powerful sorcerer while everyone else had to attend a magical school, and a lot of the blame came from the Witches' code, particularly the inheritance laws if parents had more than one child.

Miranda might have been an eleven-year-old girl, but she had lost count of the number of times she had encountered families over the years who had tension because they knew one of their siblings would inherit everything. For some families, this wasn't a problem because they did their best to treat their children equally despite the code, but it didn't always work. Some families and she'd heard that Bella's own grandparents had treated Ethel like dirt while treating her Aunt Sybil like a human being while lauding Esmerelda and placing her on a broomstick-riding high because she was their heiress at the time, unfortunately did not care or give any thought about what kind of miserable pressure they were putting on their offspring. Sometimes it was a case of simple thoughtlessness, but sometimes it was not.

Miranda was snapped out of her thoughts when her heart suddenly jumped in her chest when she heard the sound of drums being beaten, and she looked up and saw that one of the natives had been dragged by the arms by two burly warriors by the arms towards the High Priest who was standing in the centre, looking on without any expression on his features. Miranda was disturbed she had not noticed the High Priest and his entourage before now, but she pushed it out of her mind as she watched in horror at what was going to happen; she knew the HeadHunters were going to kill the natives somehow, but while she didn't want to watch she couldn't help but ask herself if this was what the HeadHunters had in mind for her and Bella while Mildred and Ethel were married off to Merlin knew who.

The native was screaming in terror, and he tried to pull away, but the warriors were too strong and their grip was too tight - Miranda could see that their grip on both of the natives' arms was so tight it looked like the arms would be dislocated any second now. The native was tied to a post and something was shoved into his mouth to keep him quiet.

As soon as he was quiet, the High Priest and the acolytes and the rest of the tribe began to chant, their voices were growling and grunting as they sang what Miranda took to be some kind of song while the acolytes sprinkled the man with powders and with some kind of holy liquids. When they were finished, another pair of acolytes appeared and they were carrying long whips in their hands. They began to flog the native, who screamed in agony and shock as the tips of the whips began to flay his skin. Two more acolytes came forward, carrying clubs with big stones tied to them. Miranda heard Bella take a deep, sniffling breath next to her, both of them guessing what was going to come before the acolytes lifted the clubs and used them to smash the natives' feet and knee caps to bony pulp…Miranda closed her eyes in horror while the screams mingled with the sound of drums and the bloodthirsty cries and cheers from the HeadHunters.

After the native had been beaten to death, the HeadHunters dragged his mutilated body to the centre of the platform where a dark block of something that was either wood or stone, it was hard to tell and truthfully Miranda didn't really want to know what it was after having to listen and watch as the HeadHunters beat the native virtually to death, and judging from how he didn't move or made any other sound other than a whimper or a groan here and there, he was too out of it to notice anything while the Chief retrieved a massive weapon that put Miranda's mind to a giant axe, that was made of sharpened stone that was honed to a sharp edge.

Miranda looked away from the spectacle even as the HeadHunters began their drumming and their shouting and hooting for their Chief to do the deed and idly she noticed the others had turned their heads away as well. She felt a pair of arms snake around her waist and drew her closer to Mildred, while at the same time Bella was being held by her aunt. Miranda studied her best friend and saw Bella was trying desperately to block out the imminent sound of the axe cutting off that mans' head.

The drumbeats rose to a crescendo, and Miranda burrowed her head into Mildred's chest, hoping to block it out for herself before they heard a sound..

Suddenly they heard the HeadHunters scream in triumph, and Miranda opened her eyes and watched from where they were in the cage as the HeadHunters beat their clubs, spears and their axes to the ground.

But Miranda made the mistake of turning her head towards the platform. Mildred saw what she was doing, and immediately tried to stop her, but the older witch was just too late.

The Chief and the High Priest were standing before the tribe, holding between them the head of the native, a pool of blood on the dark stone.

"That's what's going to happen to me and Miranda, isn't it?"

Miranda turned and looked straight into Bella's stricken face. Bella was looking at the scene with tears trickling down her face, but there was an emotion there behind the fear Miranda couldn't identify. "They're going to sacrifice us, and they're going to take our heads off."

Ethel just hugged her niece close to her chest. "It might not happen-," she tried to say, but Miranda could see the logic behind her best friend's point. The Chief and the others hadn't exactly been clear about what their long term plans were where she and Bella were concerned. Mildred and Ethel's futures, such as they were, was clear enough - they were going to be forced to marry into the tribe, and Merlin only knew how _that_ would go.

But she and Bella would be lucky enough to even _have_ a future.

"Yes, it will!" Bella snapped, interrupting her aunt and glaring her down. "They're going to kill us!"

No-one had a chance to reply because suddenly they heard a gunshot ring out, and instantly the HeadHunters dropped as one as more bullets were shot. One bullet took down one of the High Priest's acolytes, making him scream with agony briefly while more shots rang out.

Bella dropped her glare and looked around with shock. "Wh-what's happening?"

Mildred was looking into the jungle. "Can't you guess?" she asked. "It's Van Pelt. I can see him at the edge of the settlement."

"Why's he doing this?" Bella asked quietly, watching the growing carnage with worry.

Mildred glanced at her briefly, but then she turned back to take in what the hunter was doing. The sound of heavy bullets being fired into the settlement filled the air, smashing into warriors and other people as they ran around, trying to take cover. Ethel joined Mildred and they both watched as Van Pelt walked into the settlement, firing a heavy pistol in one hand while in the other he carried a flaming torch. The witches realised what the torch was for when he crept closer into the village and stuck the flames underneath the matted thatched roofs which caught fire at once, sending more of the HeadHunters into a screaming panic even as the heavy bullets slammed into everyone.

A pair of warriors armed with axes and clubs tried to rush at Van Pelt, but the hunter shot them both in the head, making the skulls explode in blood and gore. Bella screamed and turned her head, shaking in horror at the sight, but Van Pelt continued shooting into the crowd before a loud roar of rage caught the hunters attention and made the witches look around and they saw the HeadHunter chief rushing towards Van Pelt with the same bloodied axe he'd used to decapitate the native's head a few minutes ago.

"Brave, isn't he?" Ethel whispered.

"Stupid, more like!" Mildred whispered back.

They were both right. Van Pelt waited until the HeadHunter chief was close enough as if savouring the moment, and he lifted the gun and fired. The HeadHunter chief dropped to the ground like a felled tree, but he wasn't the only one to be shot down by the hunter. Van Pelt laughed as he went around, either setting one hut after another alight while shooting anyone he caught in his sights.

When he was finished, the hunter walked slowly towards the cage - his eyes may have been focused on the witches currently trapped inside, but the witches all got the impression he was alert for anything, and they didn't blame him after the HeadHunter's Chief had tried to kill him.

Van Pelt came to a stop beneath the cage, chuckling. It sounded like pebbles being scraped against a blackboard. "So, here you are," he said ironically, "trapped and waiting to be sacrificed or married. 'Til death do us part, eh?" he laughed a rumbling laughed, the light from the sun above reflecting off of the gold tooth in his jaw.

Suddenly he stopped laughing. "It would be so easy to kill all of you here now, after all, you're not exactly going anywhere, eh?"

Turning to the others to see what their reactions were to Van Pelt's taunts, Mildred saw to her horror Ethel was about to open her big fat mouth and say something incredibly stupid, so she gently placed a hand on her shoulder, making the blonde turn to her angrily, but Mildred was used to Ethel's expressions to not be phased out, but she didn't think it was a good idea for Ethel to say something stupid to get them shot.

Van Pelt laughed when he saw the two older witches actions, but he grew tired of this sport. He holstered his pistol and he loaded a new magazine into his rifle and brought it up to his shoulder to fire. The witches cried out and backed away. None of them bothered trying to use magic to either get out or get rid of the hunter - they knew it wouldn't work so there was no real point, but Van Pelt paid them no heed as he opened fire at the tight rope the HeadHunters had used to bind the cage locked. The bullet whizzed out, slicing the rope, but the hunter didn't give the witches a chance to try to get out. He fired another shot at the thicker rope holding the cage, and it fell to the ground.

The witches screamed as the wood smashed into the ground, but they were free. Miranda groaned as she'd smashed into the bars and bounced as the cage bounced lightly before coming to a stop.

"Now, I'm going to count to eleven. By the time I finish, you're to be out of that cage and in the jungle," Van Pelt said.

"Why are you doing this?" Bella asked.

Van Pelt chuckled, somehow making his jaw and teeth look crooked. "That's easy, dearie. In that cage, it was unsporting to kill you, but when you're free it makes the hunt more interesting. I'm going to count down now."

The hunter turned around and closed his eyes. "One…. two," he said and proceeded to count much higher.

While he was counting, Ethel turned to the others. "Lets get out of here," she said, and they immediately worked to get themselves out of the cage, but the problem was when Van Pelt had fired at the cage, it had rolled around and the door was underneath their bodies, so they had to roll the cage back so Mildred could open it up. It cost them quite a few numbers, and Van Pelt had reached eight by that time. Groaning and trying to ignore the pain in their aching limbs, the witches managed to get themselves out of the cage and run as fast as they could out of the village.

* * *

The hunt begins.


	15. Chapter 15

I own neither Jumanji nor the Worst Witch.

Feel free to leave feedback.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

Bella felt as if her lungs were going to burn with the amount of running she was putting them through and as she ran through the jungle while holding onto Miranda's sweaty hand who was holding onto Ethel's hand and who was holding Mildred's as they ran through the jungle. They had been racing through the jungle before Miranda had tripped over her own feet.

After that, they had begun running through the jungle holding the hands of each other to urge them on. Bella couldn't blame her friend; the pair of them were tired, their uniforms were clinging to their bodies so tightly she didn't think they could come off with anything short of a knife slicing through the material, and their boots were so tight it was a wonder they had lasted for so long without their feet becoming a mass of blisters. She also saw the flaws in the idea of holding onto each other, but personally, she was glad to be pulled along for the ride. While she felt as if her lungs were going to be cooked, she had to admit this was definitely a workout.

But the run was still hard going, and she was worried she might suffer from a heart attack.

Bella honestly had no idea how long they had been racing through the jungle of Jumanji away from the HeadHunter village that had been shot to pieces by Van Pelt who had given them such a brief head start just to be 'sporting,' but her vision was becoming cloudy from all the running, and she didn't know how long she and Miranda could run for before they collapsed from exhaustion.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Mildred and Ethel stopped, and they began pulling their charges by the arms so hard to stop them as well. Their grip on the younger girls' arms was so strong, Bella was afraid the force along with the speed they were running at would yank their arms out by the bone from the joint, but fortunately, they were both tougher than that.

Ethel turned to the two young witches, and Bella glared at her aunt malevolently for the never-ending run and how she and Mildred had pulled them both to a halt, but she was so breathless and her throat felt like it had been rubbed raw while her lungs felt as though they were going to be burnt she couldn't utter a word.

Miranda dropped to the ground the minute Ethel let go of her grasp - she had been flagging for a while, unaccustomed to the exercise she'd just been put through, not that Bella could blame her all that much despite the PE lessons Miss Drill put them through at Cackles, the lessons were not this taxing, and even Miss Drill wasn't cruel like HB was to force her students to keep wearing the everyday uniforms while making them jog in such a humid environment - panting for breath while her legs felt like rubber, and they couldn't seem to support her weight.

She was sucking in air into her desperate lungs so badly Bella was becoming worried for her friend's health; Miranda was not an exercise sort of witch, she was more the scholarly kind of witch and she had never particularly liked or adapted to exercise even though she wasn't fat since she was used to using her own magic to keep her thin though it didn't necessarily help make her really healthy, so Merlin knew how long it would be before she recovered from this run.

Bella knew how she felt; like Miranda and even her aunt Ethel, she came from a generation of magicians who were accustomed to using magic to keep themselves from putting on too many pounds, although the exercise they gained from PE worked as well. But here, in a place magic didn't work right, Bella had no idea how they were going to adapt, but they _couldn't_ go through this again.

The young witch looked up at the two adult witches standing over them, and her look became envious as she took them in.

Ethel and Mildred, although their chests were heaving slightly and their faces were both red from the exertion, weren't exhausted like Bella and Miranda, and Bella hated them for it. She knew it wasn't particularly fair and yet she couldn't help herself - her aunt and Mildred had been stuck in this cursed place for three decades, forced to run and forced to hide all the time, so it made sense they had learnt how to push themselves in a way that would have made Miss Drill proud.

Both witches had lived in this hell for years, and they had needed to become virtually super-fit while they lived off the land, never staying in one place for too long, and they had all done it without being too reliant on magic in the same way like Bella or Miranda.

Ethel saw the glare on Bella's face but she didn't pay any attention to it, guessing the reason why her niece was glaring at her. She felt bad for what Bella and Miranda had been put through, but it couldn't be helped, and with Van Pelt not far away there was no telling how long it would be before the bastard hunter found them again. In any case, if the plan for the Barrier broke down and they were forced to stay here, it would be good for her niece and her friend to get used to life on the run.

Meanwhile Mildred was looking around the small patch of the jungle they were in, her eyes darting around looking for any signs of any surviving HeadHunters or for any animals, but more importantly for the materials they'd need to make their new broomsticks to reach the Barrier, and hopefully, end this nightmare once and for all. She spotted a number of thick pieces of wood they could use, some twigs, and some bushes they could use to make the broomsticks, but only if they worked really quickly.

Bella had recovered enough of her strength to get out in coughs as she fought to get her breath back though she desperately wished there was some water or something else she could drink to help her soothe her throat, "Was…. was it….. really…. necessary to run….. run that fast?" she asked, hating the way her throat croaked as she struggled to get the words out.

"Yeah," Ethel replied, breathing slightly hard herself, but not as hard as her niece who just wasn't used to it. Her mind couldn't help but remember the first time she and Mildred had been forced to run hard through the jungle - Merlin, she had thought her chest was going to explode. "Van Pelt is right behind us," she said in a slightly condescending tone to remind her niece of the dangers. "You don't want to be shot at by him, do you?" she couldn't resist asking.

Bella's glare intensified at the reminder, but she had to concede to her aunt's point. "How long do you think it will take for him to catch up?" she asked, her voice less croaky as it had been, though it was still hoarse.

"Dunno," Ethel replied, momentarily glancing down the path they'd just run down. She could see the snapped branches, the churned up ground…. "But we've left him a nice trail."

"We've got plenty of stuff here to make some broomsticks," Mildred said, walking over to her fellow Jumanji players, gesturing behind her so Bella and Miranda could see the branches, vines, and bushes that could be worked into broomsticks.

Ethel cast a cursory eye around the patch of jungle they were in and then she groaned as she didn't like what she was seeing. "Mildred, this type of wood-."

"I know," Mildred interrupted, her own face and tone telling the two younger witches whatever it was about this wood that was bothering the pair of them it was bad but they were still in hardly a good condition to ask what the problem was. We've got no choice, Ethel. Don't forget who's following us, and in any case, we have to get to the Barrier. Now."

Ethel sighed and turned around to look in the direction they'd just run from and she had to accept Mildred was right though none of them was still not talking about what the big deal was about the wood here, and to be fairly honest Bella didn't really care. After all, wasn't all the wood here the same?

Ethel shrugged. "Okay, we'll make the broomsticks from here.'

Mildred nodded and smiled, but then her expression became worried. "Only I don't know if we've got the time to make them," she commented suddenly.

Ethel closed her eyes for a second and then levelled a glare at Mildred in disbelieving frustration. "You _just_ had to say that, didn't you?" she asked, unable to believe that even after thirty years in hell, Mildred Hubble never seemed to know when to keep her big trap shut!

"I was just saying-," Mildred protested.

"Well don't," Ethel interrupted before she looked around with a sigh, deep down wondering whether or not they did have much time; they had run a good fair distance away from the HeadHunter village, but Van Pelt wouldn't have any problem tracking them down. Knowing the hunter, he was already halfway to where they were right now. "We'd better get a move on."

The eldest Hallow present walked over to Miranda and gently pulled her up by the arms. Ethel grunted with the effort of pulling Miranda up, it was like trying to heave up a sack of 12 stone flour. The eleven-year-old girl moaned at the rough treatment as Ethel tugged harder and harder, but she refused to get up until she was ready.

Ethel ground her teeth with frustration, but Miranda refused to budge. "Oh come on, Miranda, get up!" she snapped finally in frustration with the young girl while she tried to tug harder on Miranda's hands. As she pulled, Bella looked nervously at her.

"Why don't you just use a spell to revive her?" the younger Hallow asked practically, looking between Ethel and her friend.

Ethel cursed as she pulled and tugged on Bella's useless friend and the girl just refused to get up. "I could, but if I use a spell it would use too much magic."

She pulled again, and suddenly she lost her temper, unable to comprehend suddenly why her niece had such a useless friend "Oh, get up, for Merlin's sake!"

"She's exhausted Ethel," Mildred told her while she was busy collecting as much as she could for the broomsticks.

Ethel turned around with annoyance while she still held onto Miranda's arm. "We have to keep moving," she retorted.

Mildred sighed. "I know," she replied calmly, knowing that sometimes to make Ethel listen to you needed to go in with the calmer approach, but in this case while she agreed with Ethel's reasonings for what was making her be so rough with Miranda since Van Pelt was not far away, she also had to accept Miranda was not going to get up until later. "Ethel," she went on, an idea springing to her mind; it was a bad idea, but it might just work, "I heard what Bella suggested you should do, using your magic to get Miranda up, but why don't the pair of you use a small amount together?"

"Our magic? Mildred you know we're going to need all the magic we have just to get those broomsticks working," Ethel protested, glaring over her shoulder, though some of the effects were diluted with the very real fear of what could happen if she used too much magic in one go. She wouldn't be able to fly far as she taxed her magic, that is if she could even get off the ground.

"I know, and I spent a whole night trying to get my strength back recently," Mildred reminded the older Hallow as she finished gathering the supplies and was now busily arranging them into neat piles, "but there are two of you. You can combine your magic like I did with everyone else in our first year after Agatha tried to demolish Cackles, only in this case the pair of you only need a small spark to get Miranda back on her feet quickly rather than trying to restore a castle," Mildred sighed and stopped what she was doing to give her friend all of her attention for a moment, "Ethel, we've got to take the risk. I can't make these broomsticks on my own. I need help. I don't like the thought of you two using your magic either. Ordinarily, we would just rest for as long as we choose, but we don't have the time. It's not just Van Pelt we have to worry about; we don't know how many HeadHunters there are out there that survived the shootout in the village, and I don't need to tell you there could be anything out here waiting for us."

Ethel sighed after mulling over what her friend had just said, and as much as she hated to admit it Mildred did have a point. "Oh I hate it when you make sense," she said in a snarky voice, but still it was a good idea for her and Bella to combine their magic and use it on Miranda. She sighed and held out her hand to Bella, thankful when her niece joined hands.

"Okay, lets do this and then aim the magic straight for Miranda's open mouth," she said to Bella, deciding it was the best place for it; the magic would help Miranda get back on her own feet no wonder where they sent it, but through the mouth the magic should get Miranda up quickly.

Ethel closed her eyes and let her magic flow and she felt her niece send some of her own magic into her joined hands before they 'threw' out their free hands at the same time without reciting an incantation rhyme straight for Miranda's mouth.

The girl gasped and practically leapt into the air within seconds. She looked around frantically for a minute before she settled down.

"Oh, we're still here, are we?" she whispered in a hoarse voice. Mildred lifted her head but she quickly lowered it so she could get back to her work again, mentally cursing their current mess while she worked.

"We're still here," Ethel said, glaring down at Miranda while she prepared to get back to her feet. "I kept trying to get you up-."

"I know, I heard what you were saying," Miranda interrupted, looking up at Ethel for a second through squinting eyes which seemed to her own version of a Hallow glare. "But I couldn't. I was worn out-."

"And we weren't?" Ethel snapped, gesturing between herself and Mildred, but Bella thought it was a little hypocritical because neither her aunt nor Mildred looked particularly tired.

The retort had the effect of making Miranda not very happy, and truthfully Bella couldn't say she blamed her friend for being mad although the timing was not right since they were stuck in the middle of a jungle where they didn't have a clue where they were, and there was an insane hunter who was trying to kill them following a trail they'd left while Mildred was forced to work alone while Miranda and Ethel were fighting, and Bella was pressed for options about what she could do to try to mitigate the worst of it.

Miranda stood up, her legs shaking a bit under her weight for a moment but she quickly got over it before she stormed over to Ethel, but the older witch didn't look daunted though she quickly moved into a combat stance so she could stand her ground. "Neither of you two," she turned her face to include Mildred in this before she turned back to Ethel, "looked tired when we got here. No, you just raced through the jungle like it was a stroll-."

"ENOUGH!" Bella was startled when Mildred added her own yell to stop it, and she turned to find that the second older witch had stood up and was now standing just behind Bella's shoulder, which only made her more startled, but she could tell by the look on Mildred's face the other witch was more than a little frustrated by what was happening.

"This bickering is pointless," Mildred went on, "but right now we need to get these broomsticks made instead of squabbling, or do you want to be trapped in Jumanji for the rest of your lives? We have to work together to get to that Barrier. Now, for god's sake give me some help, I've been stuck doing this, and I need help!"

Mildred gestured behind her to where the pile of broomstick bits was laying on the ground to prove her point. One of the broomsticks was finished already, and another was in the making of being finished. Bella glared at her friend and at her aunt. "She's right, you two," she said quietly even though she did agree with some of her friend's viewpoints, and she hurried over to join Mildred and she grabbed some of the supplies and began to make her own broomstick.

Ethel sighed and went over to the pile without looking at anyone, and she began to get to work. She was followed over by Miranda, though the eleven-year-old witch sat as far away from Ethel as she could get away with.

* * *

Van Pelt was disappointed really as he walked through the pathetically simple trail the witches had left after they'd escaped from the village since it was so easy to follow them through the jungle; all he had to do was examine the snapped branches, touch the imprints of the footsteps in the soil and in the patches of mud while he slowly navigated through them.

He had to reach them and deal with them quickly before they reached the Barrier.

Van Pelt knew that was where they were heading for. For centuries every group of people who had played the game eventually discovered the Barrier which existed in all of Jumanji's incarnations as the game evolved in order to adapt to the changing world outside Jumanji.

Van Pelt had to stop them, the game wanted this group of players to remain in the game, to feed it for a long time, longer than ever and hopefully, more players could be gathered to make the feeding cycle stronger than before.

He could feel the hope from the game itself, the intelligence which governed everything that it would be possible to gather new players after spending so long just having two players originally starting it all off before gaining two extra players to see it through to the end, and he could also feel the game itself preparing for the changes to allow it to have the capacity to allow more than four players, but while he could feel the basic changes Van Pelt was unaware of just how far along the changes were. While he was an integral part of the world of Jumanji, there were just some things beyond his comprehension.

For instance, he had no idea how many players the game wished to allow to have to play it. He didn't know the outside structure of the game Mildred, Ethel, and later Bella and Miranda had originally found was becoming slightly larger. All he was aware of was the game of Jumanji was using the magic it had being gathering for the last thirty years since Mildred and Ethel had arrived to change itself.

He could feel it, just as the animals and all the plants which resided here could feel it.

He held up his rifle and paused as he let his eyes examine the path in front of him while his mind sharpened by a long time hunting in this place tried to concoct a worthwhile plan to find the witches and stop them from escaping.

* * *

Bella grinned as she finally finished with her broomstick, thankful that it hadn't taken long for her or for the others to finish their own. She looked around and saw that Miranda, more or less fully recovered from the long run which had taxed them completely with the help of a bit of magic from Bella and Ethel, was already preparing herself to use the broomstick as were the others. It had taken Bella and the others slightly longer than they'd expected to get the broomsticks together since many of the materials were tougher and coarser than the ones they'd used previously, and it hurt their hands, which made it harder for them to make but not impossible.

"How long will it take for us to reach the Barrier from here?" Miranda asked the two elder witches, in an 'all business' type manner, her earlier argumentative self was now gone.

"We don't know," Mildred admitted as she hovered over the ground, and thought she was only a few feet above the ground Bella could see the strain on the older witch's face as she struggled to hold the broomstick that high, and both younger witches were reminded of how Mildred had used too much magic to find out if there was anything in that tree. Suddenly not looking forward to using the broomstick she had just made, Bella was just about to get on her own broomstick when she heard Mildred suddenly say, "Oh no," and in a louder voice, she yelled, "get in the air. Quickly! Van Pelt's almost here!"

Bella and Miranda needed no such prompting when they heard the cry, and they immediately took to the air, followed up closely by Ethel. When she was high enough Bella looked over the jungle after quickly following the direction Mildred was looking in, trying to ignore the sudden feeling of exhaustion she was experiencing as she had problems holding the broomstick high in the sky.

She did her best to ignore the sensation, and she looked out for the hunter. At first, she didn't see the hunter, and she at first assumed Mildred had lied about the hunter's approach so they could get out of Jumanji, but then she spotted Van Pelt moving quickly through the jungle path they'd cut through during their run.

"Let's get out of here, and let's hope we're out of his range by the time he gets closer," Mildred said and she had to physically close her eyes to get the broomstick to lift higher into the air. It lifted alright, but only a few inches before Mildred reopened her eyes, panting from the effort. As she saw Ethel look exhausted herself as she tried to get her own broom to rise higher. Miranda wondered if the older witch was getting some karma for what she'd done, but she pushed that aside as she tried to get higher herself. Suddenly she realised the run had been a walk in the park compared to this.

Bella mentally urged herself to get higher into the air as well, but she felt as if something were pushing down on her and stopping her from really lifting off. As she lifted her head she saw the faces of Miranda, her aunt Ethel and Mildred were feeling the strain as much as she was, but she took in the strain on the faces of the elder witches and Bella realised they were pushing so much of their own magic into the broomsticks they were riding just to stay in the air.

Bella glanced over at Miranda, who met her gaze and she realised that her friend had come to the same conclusion which was just as well because the pair of them quickly felt the strain themselves soon as they both struggled to keep their own broomsticks high in the air.

Just as Bella was thinking _that_ alone was bad enough, it was nothing compared to what came next when the eleven-year-old Hallow girl almost lost her concentration when she heard the now familiar sound of a gun firing. She was so startled her broomstick almost crashed into the ground far below, but somehow she was able to remain in the air.

She glanced back down to the ground, unaware her aunt was doing the same. The sight which met their eyes was not really a welcome one. Bella and Ethel could both see the familiar safari-suited form of Van Pelt against the green of the jungle which made him stand out, but the only good thing about the sight was the witches were now so high in the sky the hunter was now a white coloured blot far below. Ethel closed her eyes in relief that it looked like they were safely out of the range of Van Pelt's rifle.

She kept watching over him while she struggled to concentrate on the broom, cursing they were being forced to use this particular kind of wood to form the main body of their broomsticks. She and Mildred had learnt the hard way over the years certain types of wood were best for flying in Jumanji although _all_ plants in this place were virtually immune to magic thanks to a trial and error system which had seen both adult witches injured more than once over the years. But they'd had no choice but to use this type of wood otherwise they'd have been caught by Van Pelt or someone else.

Another gunshot rang out from below, the sound reverberating in all directions around and above as the witches slowly flew away.

* * *

Down on the ground, Van Pelt lowered the rifle from his shoulder, his eyes spearing the sky. "Blast!" he cursed, glaring upwards where he could see the now small dots of black against the brightness of the sky above. With a grumbling huff, he continued to watch them, mentally working out which direction they were heading so he could reach them soon.

After a few minutes of being rooted to the ground, Van Pelt moved on. He hadn't gotten very far before he paused when he heard something heavy moving in the undergrowth. Van Pelt immediately went still, slowly turning his head from side to side as he listened to while he concentrated on _where_ the sound was coming from. He heard the sound of light breathing and a purring growl coming from the right. Whatever it was was clearly trying to be stealthy, but it wouldn't work on him.

A slow smirk spread across Van Pelt's face. Very slowly the hunter slowly reloaded his rifle, and he was rewarded with the familiar sound of a bullet being pushed into the chamber, his teeth ground themselves together as he heard metal scratching metal as he tried to do it casually as though nothing were bothering him.

Now grinning in anticipation at the thought that he was being hunted instead of being the hunter, Van Pelt listened carefully as the animal that he was certain was a big cat, mentally preparing himself for what was coming while he mentally tried to make himself relax while he listened hard to what the animal was doing. He knew from years of hunting what a big cat was capable of. One wrong move and he'd feel the jaws wrapped around his neck, crushing his bone while the claws shredded his chest to pieces.

He closed his eyes for a second while he took a deep sniff, and his grin became more crooked as he took in the scent of the animal, and the distinctive musk of a full-grown leopard came back to him. The smell of the leopard told him the animal was more than ready to leap on him and it was already preparing to crouch, and from what he could tell from the stench of the animal it would leap as soon as he moved so the hunter decided to just give the leopard what it wanted. Closing his eyes slightly so he could hold down the slight thrill of anticipation and the healthy dose of fear he felt whenever he found himself in this type of situation so he could better centre himself, Van Pelt's finger slowly curled around the trigger of his rifle while he tightened his grip and shifted both of his feet to prepare himself, knowing he would have only one chance-

Van Pelt swung around, and the leopard came charging out of the undergrowth where he had known it had been hiding and preparing to leap out.

Time seemed to stand still in Van Pelt's mind although truthfully it wasn't as the massive predatory cat charged at him. Van Pelt's professional eyes were cast over the leopard as it charged out at him, his eyes scanning the cats' golden brown spotted body while he examined its muscular form for only a second before he shouldered his rifle and pulled the trigger….

* * *

The witches were only in the air for a short time, though none of the witches would ever truly be aware of just how long since their sense of time was knocked out of whack because the sunlight was everywhere, but as typical for Jumanji the place seemed to delight in torturing them by giving them a sky where they couldn't even see the movement of a sun which would give them some idea of just how much time passed.

In the end, they decided they had been in the air for an hour or so though they couldn't prove it, in that timeframe they had managed to cross a large distance away from the HeadHunter village. Just being in the air was a feat an a half in itself; it had worn all of the witches out especially Mildred and Ethel although the pair of them were more than used to the different types of wood littering Jumanji's jungle which they could use to fashion the crude broomsticks they needed to travel around.

By the time all of the witches were on the ground, they were suffering from the effects of magical exhaustion. They had pushed a great deal of their magic into the broomsticks just to keep themselves aloft when Van Pelt had found them and opened fire with his rifle but just flying out so far had pushed their reserves to their absolute limit. They knew they couldn't stay in the air for much longer.

Miranda had to shake her head as another wave of exhaustion swept through her body and making her feel as though she had just submerged her head in a bath full of water. Unfortunately, shaking her head only made the disorientation worse, and it almost made her fall off the broomstick, but she managed to retain her senses before it was too late. The magical exhaustion she was feeling just by flying this crude broomstick was making it hard for her concentrate, and the drain she was feeling of her magic was making her lethargic. She was having problems just keeping her eyes open, but as she looked at Bella, Ethel, and Mildred she could see they themselves were in different stages of the same magical exhaustion she herself was feeling.

Ethel and Mildred, being older than she and Bella, had long since past the point where they had reached their magical maturities, but the drain was affecting them and she could see it.

Like herself, Bella was having problems keeping upright. She looked like she was having more problems keeping her own eyes open as she struggled to keep the broomstick she was flying aloft. More than once she looked like she was about to fall off her broomstick, but like Miranda, Bella was able to recover in time before she did fall, though Miranda knew they couldn't last much longer in the air forever.

With that in mind, Miranda closed her eyes for a second to summon the energy to speak to the older witches while she concentrated on keeping the broomstick steady. No-one had really spoken for Merlin knew how long because it had shaken the broomsticks up, and they didn't want it to happen again.

"Can we land?" she managed to get out as loudly as she could, but even as she spoke her broomstick wobbled.

Still, her voice caught the attention of everyone around her. That was good.

Mildred jumped and turned to face her for a second before she and Ethel exchanged a quick look. Miranda studied them blearily, cursing the magical exhaustion she was feeling since the act of speaking had seemed to rob her of vital energy. Still, she was watching Mildred and Ethel with fascination. She had noticed earlier the two witches were able to seemingly communicate without the need to speak. That made sense given how hostile Jumanji was, the two witches would have been forced to learn how to do things without nearly getting themselves killed.

"Let's go down," Mildred said at last.

Miranda almost sagged with relief.

The witches slowly flew down to the ground, but it was tricky since they needed to fly through the canopies. Mildred and Ethel had made the decision to fly through the trees rather than spend any longer in the air looking for a small clearing where they could safely land. Miranda didn't care - she just wanted to get off of this broomstick, have something to eat and drink - she couldn't even remember the last time she'd eaten - and sleep off the effects of the exhaustion.

She knew the other witches wouldn't agree with her and they'd say they needed to keep going to the Barrier, but Miranda was too tired to focus even though she wanted nothing more than to escape this hellish reality-

"Miranda, look out!"

Miranda was shaken out of her nausea when she heard Ethel shout out, just in time as well since the snake that had just appeared in her dazed vision struck her before she could even muster the energy to move aside when the serpent reared back and sank its fangs into the exposed flesh of her arm, just beneath the sleeve of her uniform shirt which was clinging to her pale skin by layers of sweat. Her body was so numbed down already by the magical exhaustion from the long flight across Jumanji's jungle that she barely felt the fangs as they sank into her arm; in her current state, the two fangs might have just been just a pair of knitting needles prodding her skin.

Time seemed to stand still for Miranda when she felt the effects of the poison just as she sensed someone move over her and knock the snake away so then no more of its venom would be poured into her body, but by then it was too late. Miranda was already woozy with the effects of the magical exhaustion, so truthfully the poison was only giving her body the excuse it needed to make her close her eyes and just rest….

Bella was panicking but she was keeping out of the way while she looked down at her friend's pale face as the snake venom worked its way through her system.

When she and the others were flying through the canopies of the numerous twisted trees around them, she had been more interested in using the remainder of her magic and her concentration to land safely on the ground, much like she had been doing since the flight across Jumanji to get away from Van Pelt. Okay, maybe once or twice, she and everyone else had been on the verge of falling off of their broomsticks and crashing through the trees below them and dying from the impact though they'd managed to recover enough of themselves to keep themselves aloft, but more than once Bella had felt the altitude of the flight of her own broom had dropped sharply.

She had been relieved when Miranda had asked breathlessly if they could land, and she could tell her aunt and Mildred were more than relieved they were going to finally get some rest and hopefully get rid of these broomsticks. They had taken so much from them during this flight. She had been floating downwards when she'd heard someone yell a warning at her friend - she still wasn't sure who it had been since her brain had been swimming at the time, trying to fight through the exhaustion.

But she had seen the snake bite her friend, she had dimly watched as she had landed on the ground slowly and had almost tripped over her own feet as she had felt so tired it was hard for her to stand upright while mentally using her grandmother's never-ending and useless lectures to stand up straight to give her some strength, though in the end, she had used her broomstick to give herself some support. It was about time the thing did something handy.

She had watched as Aunt Ethel and Mildred got rid of the snake before they lowered the girl down on the ground while trying to control their own broomsticks.

"Is-is she going to be okay?" she asked her aunt and Mildred.

Mildred looked up, "I can suck the poison out of her arm, but you two will need to use magic to help."

"I don't know if we've got any magic left," Ethel said, fighting a wave of dizziness as she struggled to remain standing upright, but we'll do our best.

Mildred nodded and bent her head down and she clamped her lips to Miranda's sweat-soaked skin, and after fighting the urge to lift her head again to spit the taste out, she bit down hard on Miranda's hand and started to suck while being aware out of the corner of her eye Ethel and Bella joining their hands together in order to give themselves some strength even though they practically had no magic leftover from their long flight. She moved her body slightly, propping her knee right underneath the girl's chest and arm so then she wouldn't drop, and then she lifted her hands up after using them to stabilise Miranda's body.

Ethel and Bella were going to need all the help they could get, and as she felt them take her hands into theirs, Mildred already felt the magic coming from both Hallows while she worked on sucking the poison out of Miranda.


	16. Chapter 16

I own nothing, just this story.

Feel free to leave feedback.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"How is it now, Miranda?" Bella asked Miranda worriedly.

Miranda closed her eyes and wished her best friend would just shut up. She had woken up really weak from the effects of the snake poison although she definitely felt like her magic had been given a boost.

Miranda had never studied zoology, but she knew snake venom was designed to lower the blood pressure, though some brands of the venom had effects so dreadful non-magical doctors were forced to sometimes amputate the limb, but she was glad the same thing didn't happen to her, it was bad enough they were here in Jumanji, if they got out the last thing she wanted were people hounding her to find out what had happened to her.

"I'm okay," she tried to reassure her friend while hoping the other girl would calm down and try to relax while she tried to stop herself from shouting at Bella. After what the blonde had done, she knew it was not right to lash out at her. "Just a bit…shaky," she admitted, "but I'll survive."

Bella tried to smile back, but Miranda could definitely see that her friend, Mildred and Ethel were both clearly exhausted; not only had they flown Merlin knew how many miles on a baking hot day and drained their magic, but they had also given her some of their magic just to help heal her.

Miranda was grateful to them. Really, she was.

She had learnt that Mildred had sucked as much of the snake's venom from her wound as she could, but Bella and Ethel and Mildred had given her some of their magic to push the rest of the venom out of her injury and heal her. After that all four of the witches had walked away, leaving their broomsticks behind. Ethel had taken a quick look around the place while Miranda had been recovering, but she hadn't found any decent materials which they could use to fashion a new set of broomsticks. Miranda was glad of that, the way she felt she didn't think that she could hover an inch above the ground, never mind a few hundred feet in the air, but it did offer a lot of other problems. Without broomsticks, they would never be able to get clear across the jungle to the Barrier and hopefully out of Jumanji.

"Yeah, you better rest," Mildred whispered, looking tired herself now she didn't have nearly all of her magic was gone. "We all should."

Miranda watched as the older witch walked shakily over a tree. It was a massive thing, its trunk was wide and thick and it seemed to climb upwards into the heavens themselves, with the branches, both thick and thin-looking appeared to be gnarled, but it was high up and safe from anything on the ground. The problem was the fact it was going to be hard to climb. Her heart sank. _Oh, great,_ she thought to herself hopelessly as Ethel went over to join Mildred. _Another tree to climb._

Miranda looked up into the canopy and she sighed under her breath. The way she felt she doubted she could even muster the effort to get too high into the canopy, but she knew she had to try. Fortunately, Mildred seemed to have worked that out while the Hallows in their group grabbed a pair of vines and scaled their way upwards into the tree. Miranda and Mildred had barely grabbed their own vines and had begun scaling the trunk when they suddenly heard a growling-panting sound. Miranda glanced around nervously, and she caught sight of Mildred's face. The older witch looked frightened as she paused for a brief second and scanned the jungle floor. "Climb," Mildred hissed urgently. "Just climb!"

Scared out of her wits Miranda did as she was told as, with a bellowing roar that chilled her blood, a massive bear appeared, grunting as it moved so quickly to the tree, and it swiped its huge claws into the air. Mildred and Miranda clambered into the tree where they were pulled in by Ethel and Bella.

"Get in, quick!" Bella shouted, her eyes wide with fear.

Ethel's hold on Miranda was so tight the younger witch thought for a moment the woman was trying to cut off all circulation in her arm. "Hurry up, it will be charging the trunk in a minute!"

Miranda didn't need telling twice, but she was still exhausted after that broomstick ride which had drained so much of her magic away from her body and the snakebite had rendered her so fuzzy-headed that she needed to fight through the haze and the blazing headache in order to concentrate on climbing higher into the tree. The sight of the bear which was so much like the one that had attacked her and Bella seemingly such a long time ago but was in fact only a few days ago had given her an adrenaline rush as her survival instincts kicked in, and she found an inner strength which allowed her to climb into the tree.

Mildred followed soon afterwards, she had recovered faster than Miranda had thanks to her and Ethel's greater experience of being able to handle magical exhaustion after a long broomstick ride, particularly on broomsticks which were made from woods that caused an even higher drain of their magic than usual. But Mildred was able to scale the tree much faster than Miranda and within moments of the younger girl. Like Miranda, Mildred's adrenaline kicked in, and she soon scaled the tree just as the bear roared in anger and frustration.

In the tree, there was little time for a chat as the bear let out a terrible roar, and it rushed back through the jungle.

Ethel looked out and her eyes tracked its movements. A few moments later Ethel shouted, "It's charging the tree!"

They heard the bear let out a terrible, terrifying roar as it slammed into the tree and they all felt the force of the blow as the bear smashed into it. Mildred grabbed Miranda and pulled her into a tight, comforting hug - it did momentarily occur to the older brunette haired witch the younger witch may not want to be comforted, but she didn't care as the bear roared again and slammed into the tree head-on once more. Again, the trunk held; Mildred was thanking their lucky stars they had chosen a tree which had such extraordinarily thick and strong roots and had a very strong trunk. If it hadn't then she and the others would become bear food.

The bear roared and charged the tree again at the same time Bella screamed in terror, but Ethel had quickly wrapped her arms around her niece to keep her still and to make sure she didn't do anything stupid like fall out of the tree and be torn apart by the monster beneath them. The bear continued to slam into the tree a few more times before it finally gave up, realising it was not going to get at them that way.

The bear roared and charged at the tree again and tried to use its claws to dig into the surface of the trunk, but the witches in the tree felt the impact as the bear slammed into it again though this time it was much lighter. Mildred looked over the edge and watched in horror as the bear tried to use its long white claws to dig into the tree's trunk and scale it, but the bear kept sliding downwards.

Mildred could see why easily once she had noticed how the bear's claws were too thin to take purchase into the wood. Bears weren't like cats or squirrels, their claws weren't designed to be little grappling hooks. It did not help the tree itself was quite tall and there were no lower branches for the bear to grab hold of and use it as a foothold to scale the rest. Mildred was soon joined by Miranda while Ethel was holding onto the terrified Bella, who was paralysed with terror at what was going on around them.

Bella whimpered and each time the bear roared the sound would make her cry out, almost in sync with the bear's angry and frustrated bellows while it didn't have any luck with climbing up the tree. Its bad luck in climbing up the tree made the oversized animal roar in frustration when it couldn't find any purchase over the sheer surface and slid down like a drop of water down a pane of glass, only this droplet was soon smashing its paws into the strong wood of the tree in frustration as it tried to find a way of holding on.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, the bear gave up and it roared in fury and smashed the tree again but the tree, as though it were mocking the massive and aggressively hungry animal, just continued to hold before the animal walked away.

Mildred and Miranda watched it leave but they wondered if had truly given up, or if it was simply going away for a longer charge towards the tree. After a few minutes of tense waiting, the two witches started to slowly relax, but Mildred kept her eyes peeled on the rest of the jungle, knowing that the bears' angry bellows might have attracted something that could climb trees, and she shuddered at the thought of a chimpanzee or a leopard finding its way into the tree.

She killed that thought instantly, knowing it would terrify the girls more than they were now.

After she pushed that thought out of her mind, Mildred tapped Miranda on the shoulder. She waited before she had the younger witch's attention before she spoke to the girl. "I'll keep an eye out," she whispered, knowing that she couldn't just leave where she was, "get back to the others."

Miranda nodded, seeing the logic. She went back to where Ethel was tending to a terrified Bella. The girl had stopped crying but she was sniffling in terror while Ethel held onto her, muttering soft reassurances. Miranda went over and hugged her friend gently without touching Ethel that much.

"I think its gone, Bella," Miranda whispered, but the blonde girl was still terrified. Mildred watched her carefully, seeing how she shook. She had a feeling it was more than the bear that was terrifying Bella, but Mildred knew how she felt. So did Ethel. Mildred's eyes met her friend's gaze, and she could read the worry in Ethel's eyes while she continued to rub Bella's back with practiced if awkward hands. Ethel had probably soothed and comforted Sybil despite all of those pretences she had just left the work to Esmerelda, but Mildred knew better since she had seen how worried and scared Ethel was during their second year at Cackles during that mess with the Fire Spell Sybil, Clarice, and Beatrice had used to distract the entire school so they could get the Founding Stone back after Beatrice, accidentally sneezing due to her allergy to cats which made her transfer around the school, made Sybil take the stone back to their bedroom.

Mildred had watched Sybil being comforted by her elder sister. Sybil had not been cared for by an amateur. Ethel had known what she was doing, and while she might be a bit of a bitch at times, Mildred knew that when the time was right Ethel would not hesitate to take care of one of her sisters.

Leaving the two Hallows to their moment though she did make a mental note to look after Sybil herself, Mildred turned away and looked out over the jungle silently, her eyes scanning every single inch that she could see. It never failed to amaze her with just how calm and seemingly peaceful the jungle of Jumanji was, but Mildred and Ethel had learnt the hard and easy way that it was not true.

Jumanji was never quiet. She knew out there the sound of the bear might have attracted the attention of something bad, but she hoped that was not true.

 _We've had enough trouble as it is with monkeys and apes. I don't think Ethel has ever forgotten that time we saw that chimpanzee rip the head of that younger chimp off its neck._

Bella's quiet voice broke the silence and interrupted her thoughts. "I want to go home," she whispered.

Mildred closed her eyes, letting her brain drift back to all the thoughts she had of her own home.

"We know," Miranda said, sounding peeved that she was being reminded of the fact they were trapped here.

Mildred glanced over her shoulder. She saw Ethel sending Miranda one of her glares for the manner she had spoken to Bella, but she was keeping strictly out of it. Ethel could stick up for herself.

"I'm sorry," Bella cried, digging into her aunt and seemed to have sensed she had annoyed her best friend, "but that bear was scary."

Mildred and Miranda both winced when Bella let out a series of loud sobs, and Mildred turned around to see that Ethel was trying desperately to keep the girl quiet. "Bella," Ethel was saying, "you'd better calm down. That bear couldn't climb up here, but there are other things out there that can."

Ethel's voice was sharp but it was soft at the same time, but it seemed to make an impression on Bella. "I'm sorry, Auntie Ethie," Bella said as she pulled away, "I just got scared."

"I know," Ethel reassured her niece genuinely and held onto her soothingly.

Mildred sighed and lowered her head, hoping that Bella would be okay. The similarities between Bella's mother and her other aunt in this little girl never failed to surprise Mildred, but she was worried as well. She could see that Bella had inherited Esmerelda's mother-coddling attitude (just because her exposure to the elder girl had been limited did not mean Mildred had not often seen it happen), she had been over Miranda, making sure she was okay after the other girl had been bitten by that snake. But she had also inherited a great deal off of Sybil.

Sybil had been hard to draw out of her shell (she had no idea whether or not what the effect of losing Ethel had on the younger girl despite the description Bella herself had given, though that was just a second-hand description, so neither Mildred or Ethel knew too much), but with good friends like Beatrice and Clarice, Sybil had started to relax although some moments made her lose her cool.

It had taken Sybil a whole year to reach the point where she was comfortable at Cackles, though it was probable it would have been much easier if Esmerelda had been there for Sybil's first year, and the younger was frightened that being there would result in her losing her life or her magic. No wonder the poor kid had been scared out of her mind, and Mildred knew it.

She only hoped that Bella sorted herself out soon. She was terrified of Jumanji, but that was fine since Mildred and Ethel had both been scared out of their own wits by the place since they had first got here thirty years before. Mildred just hoped that Bella, with Ethel around, adapted and pretty quickly. They needed to get to the Barrier as quickly as they could, and they needed to get there together. But Mildred had faith in Bella; if Sybil could adapt to Cackles, then Bella could adapt to Jumanji.

* * *

As he walked through the jungle, stopping every once in a while to sniff the still humid air, the hot scents of herds of elephants, the musky stenches of bears and lions, mixing with the smell of rotting vegetation filling his nose and made his nostril hairs move as he examined the different scents before effortlessly sorting them out, Van Pelt let a grin slither across his face, stretching his rubber-like skin into a rictus which exposed the gold teeth in his jaw.

The hunter had been trailing the witches for hours, using the general direction of the Barrier to give him a bearing, though it had been easy to follow since when the witches flew above the ground they had been easy enough to follow before they had gotten out of range. That was where he was going to now himself. He had no idea if he would meet the witches on the way, but he even if he didn't then he would reach the Barrier first and then he would deal with the witches permanently before they could be free of Jumanji. Only the witches had too strong a head start over him although he had seen through the powerful pair of binoculars he carried on his person at all times when he was hunting for his prey the witches had problems just getting the broomsticks to go high. Van Pelt had no idea just how the magic that allowed the witches to fly actually worked except it worked in much the same way as it did with the last players of the game. Those two wizards had been more proud of themselves in Jumanji as had the blonde witch called Ethel, but when they found out their magic did not work properly in this dimension they had problems adjusting to their predicament though many of them sooner or later discovered they could still fly after they had arrived, though finding the right wood for the materials was hard and gave him the chances he needed to track them down.

Van Pelt had always cursed the witches for being able to fly since they never left that many tracks, and sometimes he had no idea where they had flown too which made it impossible for him to find them again.

But there were moments that he did know where they were going, and this was one of them. It was the fault of the witches, of course. At this point Van Pelt did not particularly care if he had the direction right, he had their direction perfectly. He didn't care at this stage whether he met them at any point on the way, but if he met them between now and the time he reached, no matter. Either way, he was going to win.

* * *

Bella shivered in the darkness as she clung to her aunt, she had her arms wrapped around Ethel like an octopus. Next to her, holding her just as tightly, was Miranda. Bella could tell from the girl's own breathing that Miranda was just as frightened of the night since the night air was anything but silent, though they already knew that, but clearly the events of the day had gotten to her as well.

Bella couldn't blame her friend for that, especially after Miranda had been bitten by a snake and then chased up a tree by a large and extremely angry bear. But the night was worse. The bear had terrified her and now the sounds of the jungle were getting to them both. She knew she was being foolish, shivering in terror of the night, but after the experiences of the day and being frightened out of her wits for Miranda's life and being attacked by a massive bear, she was still trying to work through her fear. It didn't help that it was pitch dark out there with the only ambient light being the light of the moon.

Bella was quite ashamed and mortified by her newly returned fear of the dark, but there was little to nothing she could do about that. Yes, she had been frightened when she had first shared a tree with the witches around her, but Bella could tell that her aunt, her best friend, and Mildred were nearby because she could hear them as they spoke.

"What time are we getting out?" Miranda was asking Mildred uncertainly, and Bella felt rather than saw her friend's dark hair sweep into her face. Miranda was clearly trying like she was to figure out where the elder witch was.

Mildred and Ethel pondered the paradox of telling the time in this place briefly before the elder witch answered the question. "Early. But hopefully, we can get out without anything else coming after us."

The last words were poorly chosen. Bella stiffened in worry and she felt Miranda stiffen as well. "You-you mean that bear c-can come b-back?" Bella whispered.

"I hope not," Mildred answered a moment later. Mildred was thankful for the darkness because it meant neither of the two young witches could see her visibly curse herself for being stupid for saying something like that. "We've better get some rest."

Bella's tummy rumbled and she stroked it, wincing at how sore it was. She hadn't eaten anything for hours, and now it looked as though they were about to spend the entire night without getting anything to eat. Bella shifted around and she felt and heard her aunt sigh as she wrapped her arm around Miranda, who snuggled into the blonde before they overheard someone shuffling in the dark before they heard a grunt from Miranda.

"Sorry, Miranda," Mildred apologised, "I didn't see you."

Bella heard her aunt chuckle a little bit before she fell asleep.

* * *

Until the next time.


	17. Chapter 17

I own neither the Worst Witch or Jumanji, just this story.

Please let me know what you think.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"Do you think it's safe to go down right now?" Miranda asked cautiously as she crouched down near Mildred while Ethel slowly abseiled down the tree.

Mildred was looking out over the jungle, looking out for any sign of any animals down below. "We've got no choice," Mildred replied, her voice so low while she concentrated on keeping an eye out in case something like that bear came charging out while Ethel was only half-way down the tree, though Miranda and Bella had to accept there was a lot more than bears and snakes out there, though they already knew that, given they had already seen some of Jumanji's twisted wildlife. "We can't stay in this tree all day," she began in a practical manner, "in any case, don't you want to get out of this place?"

"You know we do," Bella glared at her as she interrupted the little discussion between Miranda and Mildred, annoyed at the notion she and her friend would want to stay here. She was already anxious enough as it was since it was her aunt that was climbing down.

All through the night, Bella had been anxious about what was down there in the jungle, and she had been frightened that the minute they stepped foot on the jungle floor again, something would attack them. Apparently, she hadn't been the only one to be worried. So Mildred and Aunt Ethel had decided the best way to make sure they got out of the tree safely was to go down one at a time while the others waited, and then slowly go down themselves.

Bella hated it.

She hated having to watch as her aunt offered herself up to be a guinea pig. But she knew it had to be done, they couldn't stay here in the tree all the time.

The fact they had to risk their lives was bad enough although she knew it had to happen if they were to ever escape, but Bella was anxious because the claw marks left behind by the bear were still carved on the tree, and she was sure Miranda had seen them as well which was why she was cautious. Mildred and Auntie Ethel didn't seem to be bothered at all by the size of the claw marks. They had definitely seen them before, or they had seen much much worse, and Bella truly did not want to stick around in Jumanji long enough to see all that for herself.

But she was more worried about her aunt. Bella had only had her Auntie Sybil in her life, and while she loved her aunt dearly, Bella knew that the _mysterious_ disappearance of Aunt Ethel had permanently shattered both her mother and her aunt while her grandparents hadn't cared for some reason Bella simply did not understand and frankly did not care about. The last thing she wanted right now was to lose her aunt now.

"I know you do, Bella," Mildred countered gently, not taking her eyes off of the jungle, watching for any movement, "but we're only going to get out of here if we get out together."

Meanwhile, Ethel was slowly making her own way down. She could hear everything the others were saying and she wished they would just shut up. While she agreed with Mildred, she had to admit the younger girls had every right to be frightened of what was going on; if her thirteen-year-old self were here now, she would have been astonished by the very thought, it would be unthinkable, but her relationship with Mildred had become stronger over the years though she had no idea now what would change when they escaped.

Ethel abseiled down very slowly. She didn't want to land on the ground, only to be confronted by one of Jumanji's natural horrors without having the time to escape, but she wished the well-meaning Bella would just shut up; she was seeing the claw marks in the trunk, some of them were quite deep.

"Is there anything?" she asked Mildred.

Mildred scanned the jungle for a moment. "I can't see anything, just take it slowly."

Seeing that Mildred and Ethel were both going to ignore their concerns for the moment, Miranda and Bella decided to keep watch over the jungle as well from different parts of the tree, which was just as well because Bella called out, "Mildred, Aunt Ethel….," she called, taking a moment to get a better look at the animal she had just seen.

Instantly Ethel stopped. "What is it?" she hissed.

"I think…. I think its a couple of elephants, they're quite close to the tree."

"Elephants?" Mildred asked in alarm, dashing over quickly to where the small blonde girl was keeping watch. Her eyes widened in surprise and horror as she took in the two massive animals. They weren't far away but they hadn't spotted the witches, which was just as well, but the fact they hadn't been heard was worrying.

"There are just three of them, not even a herd," Mildred whispered to herself.

Miranda looked anxiously at her. "Is that bad?"

"No. A full herd is a nightmare. You don't ever want to be charged by elephants in this jungle," Mildred said, her voice a whisper though spoke volumes to the two young witches, and suddenly their curiosity died down.

"Mildred, what in the name of Merlin is happening?" the brunette witch heard Ethel call up.

Mildred glanced at her young charges. "Keep an eye on them," she told them both before she dashed back over to Ethel, and after a quick scan to make sure there weren't other animals about to attack she looked down.

"Ethel," she began, knowing this was going to be tricky, "there are two elephants not far from us. Can you get back up?"

"Just two? Can't you all come back down?" Ethel countered, knowing Mildred didn't want to give the elephants any reason to come to the tree in the first place, but she wanted to get them all out. There was logic to both of their arguments, but they needed to get clear quickly.

"Yes, there are just two," Mildred hissed down, looking over her shoulder to make sure there wasn't an elephant about to charge at them, "we could try-," she added, thinking that perhaps hanging around in the tree was not the best idea she had had. But just before she was about to make a plan to get them all down, and tell the two girls, Miranda came over quickly. "The elephants are almost here," she hissed.

Ethel and Mildred shared a look of horror with one another. Although Jumanji-elephants were enormously different from natural elephants, how they were larger, more aggressive despite exhibiting the same high intelligence of a typical elephant, their aggression was augmented greatly by this same intelligence, they were still vegetarians, but the two adult witches were both horrified with the thought of a pair of elephants smashing into the tree if they were spotted.

Mildred looked at the ground and listened, she could hear the sounds made by the two elephants. She could just about see the grey, thick, wrinkled hide of one of the massive beasts as it lumbered through the jungle. There was no time for them to get Ethel back up, and Mildred knew it. It was also too dangerous for Ethel to come back up. She and the older Hallow knew if the elephants saw them in the tree, hiding, they would almost certainly be sitting ducks for when the elephants smashed it to pieces. Or, alternatively, they might go unseen by the elephants, but the elephants could still smash the tree to the ground as they foraged and not even know they'd done it, and if that happened then they would almost certainly scream in terror and pain, startling the elephants into smashing the tree and some of the other parts in this particular part of Jumanji. The elephants here had only one answer to when they were startled, it was basically stomp-stomp-stomp. She came to a decision. "Get Bella over here, now," she told Miranda, hoping her voice was significantly commanding enough to make an impression on the younger girl.

As Miranda rushed to get Bella, Mildred leaned over to speak to Ethel. "We're coming down," she told the blonde shortly.

Ethel looked up and, nodded, seeing this wasn't the time to argue. She continued abseiling down the trunk, as fast as she could while being as careful as she could.

When Bella came running over while Ethel reached the base of the tree, Mildred had them sent down instantly. There was no time for them to do checks, they had to get out of the tree right now. The moment they were down, the younger girls instantly tried to run, but the two older witches stopped them both.

Instead they dragged Miranda and Bella over to the undergrowth, as far from the massive elephants, who were still foraging but were still too far from them to be a major threat to the witches, though they were now closer to the tree which had given them refuge for the night, and had protected them against that bear; one of the elephants walked close to a tree, one even larger and thicker than the one the witches had been in, and with barely any visible effort, sent it toppling down to the ground.

Bella and Miranda gaped at the visible display of physical strength, but the older witches were both unaffected. They had seen this kind of power from the elephants in the past, and it wasn't special to them.

"Keep low," Mildred hissed to Bella as they watched the elephants walk slowly through the jungle, their enormous forms effortlessly smashing through the undergrowth, knocking down trees even thicker than the one the witches had been hiding in during the night. Neither Miranda nor Bella needed to be told twice, but Bella turned to whisper to her aunt, "How long do we have to wait?"

"Until they've gone," Ethel replied, holding onto her niece. "Trust us, we do not want to move while they're here."

"We once startled a herd of elephants by accident, our very first week in Jumanji," Mildred told them in a whisper, her eyes tracking the elephants as they did what they were doing. "They chased us for two miles, smashing their way through the jungle like you wouldn't believe. They would have trampled us to death if we hadn't turned a different way."

"And then we almost got eaten by that tiger," Ethel reminded her.

"Oh, yeah, I'd almost forgotten that. The point is, we found our way back to where the elephants had trampled that part of the jungle; everything had been torn and uprooted only to be smashed and trampled to pieces," Mildred told the two frightened girls.

"Okay," Bella nodded her head, looking around nervously for more elephants, though she was also keeping a watch out for anything even more unpleasant. "Keep away from the elephants or they will squash you, got it."

Ethel snorted. "We've seen them do worse," she commented grimly as she remembered the time they had seen the elephants pointlessly charge anything that moved nearby.

"We don't want to know," Bella said quickly.

"Very wise." Mildred nodded approvingly.

"Shut up."

The witches were forced to wait for what seemed like hours, and Bella was starting to fidget slightly because she was suffering from cramp. Miranda wasn't too far off. It didn't help matters that their uniforms, which were now quite tattered, were making them sweat after being locked in the same position for hours, and their boots were still tight on their feet.

In that time the elephants didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave.

"I wish they'd just go away," Mildred hissed, idly rubbing the sweat off of her face, "the longer they're here, the easier it would be for Van Pelt or something else to catch up to us."

Miranda was a little bit surprised about where the older brunette's priorities were since there were two elephants, both large and powerful animals that were capable of smashing trees like the one which had been more than enough to stand up to that bear yesterday as if they were tall stalks of grass you just walk through, and she was more worried about Van Pelt, but she had to see things from her perspective. The elephants' presence here was bad enough, but knowing there was much worse out there and they were just sitting here waiting for the elephants to just leave because they were so dangerous was really worrying. "They're not in any hurry," she just said in a neutral tone, trying desperately not to cry out in pain.

The sitting position all of the witches were in was cross-legged for comfort, but they had needed to stay in that position for so long it was quite painful. It didn't help the younger girls; their boots were not the easiest type of footwear to walk in, run in, or sit in. The sitting position combined with the tightness of Bella and Miranda's boots made cramp virtually inevitable. Miranda shot an envious glance at what Mildred and Ethel had done. They didn't have the resources to fashion shoes or any kind of footwear to wear on their feet, so they had gone barefoot, and judging from what she had seen of the soles of those feet, the two older witches had quite thick ones which had been thickened by thirty years of being trapped here.

"They're not going to go," Bella said in a decisive tone as she looked at the elephants as they continued to forage around, "I say we chance it."

Mildred and Ethel shared a look. Bella's idea had some merit, especially since it was as clear as day she was right, but the problem was while the idea was simple, they both knew it would be anything but. The two older witches knew it was dangerous, but they knew they wouldn't be able to stay here forever. With all their attention directed at the elephants, it would be easy for something else to sneak up on them.

The two older witches had to concede that Bella had a point, and Ethel sighed and nodded. "Come on, let's go," she whispered, and she led the way by crawling on her arms so the elephants wouldn't see them.

Once the four witches felt they were far enough from the elephants, they got back on their feet fully planning to find the materials they would need to help them make a new set of broomsticks, but the moment they did they wished they hadn't. A huge bear was right there. It growled at the witches but it didn't move, it just stood there, staring at them with its amber coloured eyes.

Bella broke the silence with a squeak. "Is…is that the same bear from…l-last night?" she stammered.

None of the other witches bothered to reply. It was possible the bear was the one, but then again the question was really stupid. Mildred licked her lips and took a step back. "Let's take this slowly," she whispered slowly, "back away a bit…easy.'

The bear roared.

Miranda and Bella screamed and they ran off, followed closely by the two adult witches. The bear roared at them and charged after them. As she ran through the jungle, ducking and dodging the undergrowth, Miranda just couldn't believe it; they had been chased by bears, first when they had first arrived in this horrible place, and again yesterday. Miranda puffed out a breath, hoping and praying they found a way to get rid of this bear; she was still recovering from running away from Van Pet, the stress of losing so much of her magic from riding on that broomstick which had drained so much from her and the others, and the heart was appalling while her boots her practically crushing her feet. Miranda cursed Cackle tradition, and she wondered who had started off the whole boot-wearing thing, and why no-one had ever taken the idea it was actually a terrible idea to be wearing the stupid things.

They had been chased more by bears than they had anything else in this place. As they startled some monkeys, which screeched in indignation at being disturbed, but their cries of protest died as soon as they bear charged after the witches, and they scuttled back up into the trees, but it didn't really stop them from screeching down at the bear in anger.

Mildred blew out a breath, wishing they'd at least had something to drink before this chase had begun. The heat of Jumanji was making it difficult for the older brunette to really concentrate, but she was thankful the last thirty years trapped in this hell had given her the stamina needed to just survive a few minutes of this run. Suddenly she saw something that gave her hope. "Head for the trees, the gnarled ones over there," she called out, and led the way, grabbing onto Miranda and pulling her that way so the two Hallows would have no choice but to follow. She could tell the younger witch was in pain from this run, but she hoped it wasn't anything too serious, but there wasn't anything Mildred could do about it right now.

When they got to the trees, it didn't take the other three witches long to realise why Mildred had dragged them over here. The trees were definitely gnarled, but the trunks were quite close together, their trunks weaving in and around each other in a corkscrew manner, though they were more like vines, and some of them were quite close to the ground. But there were gaps.

The gaps they made were small and narrow enough for a human to crawl through, but they were too narrow for a bear, and they could see that the bear would have a lot of trouble getting through the branches. Miranda and Bella shot through the gaps and crawled over the branches awkwardly while Mildred and Ethel just went through and over without struggling like the younger witches, thanks in part to their lighter, more ragged clothing, their lack of footwear, and because they had become used to this type of life.

It didn't take long for the bear to get caught. At first, it had managed to simply crash through the thinner, less stronger trees with ease, as it chased after the witches, but it didn't take long for it to meet the thicker and thicker trees which only slowed it down, but it pushed on. But those moments where the bear was slowed down grew longer and longer and gave the witches enough time to get further and further away from the furry behemoth.

Finally, they heard a loud but distant roar from behind them, and Ethel turned her head just a touch, just to peek over her shoulder, and she saw the huge, distant shape of the bear as it lumbered around the trees, trying to find an alternative way in after them. _Merlin, these things just don't give up,_ she thought to herself, though she already knew that.

 _Still, its not all bad,_ Ethel thought to herself as she ran after the others who weren't that far away while she tried to think this through optimistically, _given some time, we might be able to rig up a couple of broomsticks, and fly out of here, and that bear can't chase us everywhere, can it?_

The witches kept running and they were just passing a fairly wide place covered with plants and surrounded by thick trees that only gave the place a more fortified appearance until Bella suddenly screamed, and they stopped in shock. Ethel's eyes widened in horror when she saw a thick, pale green-yellow vine wrapped around her nieces' foot, and was pulling her away.

"Bella!" Miranda screamed, but Mildred got there first by leaping over and grabbing Bella's hands and pulling away with all of her strength. Mildred pulled, straining as she tried to keep the vine from pulling Bella even further away. She found herself calling upon her own magic as she pulled harder and harder to stop the vine from pulling the young, panicking preteen away even more.

"Make it STOP!" Bella screamed in terror while Miranda grabbed onto Bella's arm to help Mildred while Ethel ran forward, pulling out a sharpened stone knife from her belt.

"Hold her tight," Ethel shouted at the others while she proceeded to saw her way through the vine, but it was hard work; the vine was slowly making its way further up Bella's legs, meaning it was moving all the time, and Ethel was having to watch out for any other vines moving towards _her._

Bella's cries didn't help either. "Help me, someone!" or "AUNTIE ETHIE, CUT IT QUICK! I CAN FEEL IT DRAGGING ME AWAY!"

Finally, Ethel succeeded in cutting through the thick vine, and it fell away with a screech and the vine retracted. No longer supported by the vine, Bella's body fell to the ground and she landed on it with a thump, and she was left moaning with pain.

Ethel dropped to the ground with her, her hands checking the younger Hallow, terrified. "Bella, are you okay?" she asked, mentally kicking herself a moment later for asking a really stupid question, knowing that Bella was _not_ okay, not by a long shot after what she had just been through.

Bella was panting and too breathless to answer her question.

"What was that?" Miranda gasped, her eyes wide in horror.

Ethel was about to answer when Mildred whispered. "Oh, no."

The others looked around and they quickly saw what the older brunette had just seen. All around the grove flowers were beginning to appear while vines were spreading everywhere.

Ethel closed her eyes. "No, not these things again," she cursed.

"Oh, Merlin," Miranda begged, her eyes wide in horror as she saw just how fast the vines were moving.

"This…is….not….happening!" Bella whispered, getting the words out slowly as if they would undo what they were seeing.

"Oh, it's happening," Ethel said, dragging her niece up quickly while Mildred did the same with Miranda.

"Stay away from plants, don't touch anything," Mildred said.

"Don't make sharp movements, either," Ethel added.

Miranda gaped in awe as she saw flowers budding out of the vines, revealing vivid colours of purple and red. "They're beautiful," she gaped, reminded of some of the tropical flowers she had seen once or twice.

"Yeah, they're beautiful," Mildred said sarcastically. "Don't touch the purple or the red ones. They shoot out poisonous barbs. And definitely stay away from the pods. They are the big yellow ones."

They heard a roar and they turned around and saw the bear. It looked dishevelled and not very happy, and they could see bits of twig and leaf in its thick fur coat. It roared and charged towards the witches….


	18. Chapter 18

I own nothing.

Please let me know what you think.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

The witches screamed as the bear charged towards them, its massive paws slapping the ground as it ran. Detecting the approach of prey or a new enemy, the vines twisted automatically in the direction of the new creature in their midst.

Bellowing with anger and defiance as the poisonous barbs were shot against its bulk, the bear didn't give up as it charged them…but to the yelp in surprise and anger as a vine shot out and wrapped itself around its massive furry body. Then it began to pull the bear away, the vine tugging with incredible strength towards a large patch of vegetation. The bear bellowed defiantly, desperately digging its long white claws into the ground, but the vine was too strong.

It tried to slash at the vine, but its claws were just too long to make an impression on the vine. The witches watched in horror as the bear was pulled slowly towards the patch of vegetation where they could just make out a gaping hole, but as the bear bellowed in defiance something was coming out of the hole in the patch. The younger witches gaped in surprise as a giant flower bud appeared out of the hole, there was a long thick vine that was poking out of the petals that were currently wrapped around the bear's body and was dragging the struggling animal towards it.

As it finished poking its green leafy form out of the hole, the petals unfurled and the thick and large green leaves retracted as the flower opened up revealing a massive yellow flower, but Miranda noticed the edges of the thick petals were covered in sharp spikes. Not thorns, spikes. And the bear was heading towards it, and then she noticed something else about the leaves that had covered it; the edges were topped by much longer spikes that looked more like machetes. Long, green machetes.

The bear must have sensed the danger because it bellowed in defiance and terror, and it redoubled its futile efforts to break free. But it was hopeless because the pod Mildred and Ethel had warned Miranda and Bella about was dragging the bear towards it, and it seemed to have found some kind of inner strength because it pulled the bear much more quickly than it had before.

Bella and Miranda both watched, too terrified to either scream or cry. Mildred and Ethel looked on, both unaffected or unruffled by the agony the bear was going to be put through. They had to watch as the leaves that protected the pod pulled upwards and backwards, and then with lightning speed impaled the bear through its thick hide. The bear's scream blended with Bella's own horrified scream before Mildred clamped her mouth shut with her hand.

"Let's get out of here," Ethel whispered, turning her head away so then she wouldn't have to watch as the bear, which was now only letting out rather pathetic mewling sounds of pain and fear, was being sucked into the orifice of the pod where the vine was coming from, but fortunately none of the witches had to see it actually devour the bear. But as they slowly left the clearing, trying their best to put out their minds the horrid gurgling and sucking noises coming from the pod.

"Get down!" Bella suddenly shouted, and they dropped to the ground just in time to avoid a volley of needle-like barbs.

Miranda looked wildly at them. "What happened?"

"I saw them turning in our direction," Bella explained shortly, and Miranda nodded as she realised what her friend had seen, and she was thankful that Bella had been on the ball otherwise they would have been struck by those barbs. Miranda had already gone through one painful poisonous experience in this twisted reality, she did not want to go through another.

"Good eye," Ethel praised her niece, who blushed happily at her aunt's praise.

"Don't get cocky, we've still got to get clear of here," Mildred warned and the witches sobered up and they began to leave, but they were more vigilant this time around. Fortunately, there were no further incidents.

* * *

Van Pelt smirked as he listened to the stampede continue with its work ahead of him. They had already levelled part of the jungle, smashing down trees and undergrowth to form a corridor for him to traverse without needing to spend hours and hours carefully moving through the jungle to avoid being pounced on or bitten by one of the more unpleasant beasts that lived here. Once again, his knowledge of Jumanji's geography had served him well as he continued to walk parallel to where the witches were despite one or two hiccups which had forced him to take different tactics he ordinarily would never take before. But it had to be done.

He was also making good time as well, even though he was relying solely on walking there. But he would make it.

He could sense their presence even if they were miles away from where he was currently, but he was not walking after them. He knew it would be a waste of time. The witches had no intention of walking all the way to the Barrier, and he knew it. He knew he could chase after them, using his bond and connection with Jumanji to make it easier to find them, but Van Pelt knew they would get into the air before he even reached them. That was why he was walking parallel with them, so then he could follow the paths and the routes he knew would take him close to the Barrier, though whether or not he would get there first or they would, Van Pelt didn't know and he didn't care.

In the meantime, the hunter had to avoid getting attacked by the animals here. At the same time, he'd had to admit to himself speed would be essential if he was to reach the Barrier in time. He had already been slowed once or twice despite his knowledge of Jumanji In the end, he had decided to make life easier for himself by starting a stampede when he had found zebras, rhinoceroses and elephants. He had shot two of the animals before he had set part of the jungle on fire to panic them, and he had simply walked after them as they had charged through their jungle home.

* * *

Walking through the wood with the tree trunks and branches so close together, and interweaving themselves like a wicker basket, Bella almost couldn't believe what had happened as they neared the end while she carried the things they'd need to make broomsticks with. Mildred and her aunt Ethel had decided to make three-lots of broomsticks. The older witches' views were simple; they had spent too long making one set at a time, which made sense, and if they wanted to get through the Barrier, they needed to be able to change their broomsticks at a moments notice when they realised the homemade things were wearing out.

Ethel was walking ahead of the others and she turned around and nodded. "I think we're safe enough to make the brooms here," she said, dropping her bits on the ground.

Mildred and the others followed suit and dropped their own supplies on the ground and started making their own broomsticks. It was a long and tediously repetitive job making three broomsticks in one go.

"I hope we never have to do this again," Bella commented.

Mildred shrugged. "So do we, but we'd better be ready to make new ones in case we lose these three," she said.

Ethel nodded, "She's right, and you'd be amazed how many times we've said much the same, only to make new ones."

Miranda, however, was looking up at the sky. "How long will it take for us to get to the Barrier, Ethel?"

Ethel looked up and tried to make an estimate, but she eventually shrugged her shoulders, absently realising that in the past she would have blustered, but now she no longer really cared for something so childish. "I don't know," she replied honestly, "that's the problem with flying here, we've actually got no real idea of time, but I guess an hour or two?" she looked uncertainly at Mildred, who shrugged.

"It doesn't matter," the brunette haired witch said as she grimaced as she tied the tail of the broom together. "All that matters right now is we get to the Barrier now. The sooner we get there, the better."

"What happens when we do get there? Surely you don't think we'll escape this place the moment we get in, do you?" Miranda asked cynically.

"No," Mildred replied slowly, "then again we don't know _what_ we'll find, but don't forget what the instructions on the outside of Jumanji said…"

"Oh, the instructions," Bella whined, looking wistful. "Outside. What a lovely word."

"All we have to do is find a place where we can say 'JUMANJI,' and then we'll be free," Mildred said without even acknowledging the interruption.

The older dark-haired witch smiled optimistically up at her fellow witches, but inwardly Mildred hoped that everything went smoothly. Apart from the fact they knew animals could get in, they knew nothing about what was inside the Barrier. And boy had Mildred and Ethel tried to find out what was inside. They had once spent a month really close to the Barrier, but Van Pelt's presence had stopped them from staying for a longer period of time trying to find a way inside without being hit by the Barrier itself. Every single time they looked in, it was like looking through a window while it was raining, late at night, while there were lingering patches of fog.

An hour later - none of the witches could really tell how much time had passed - their broomsticks were waiting. Bella looked at them worriedly, wondering if the brooms would cause them the same problems as the last load; she had never felt so drained in her life, and she didn't want to go through that experience again in a hurry.

Judging from the expression on Miranda's face, her best friend felt the same way, although the experience had caused her a lot of grief with the snakebite, but she had managed to survive.

Mildred and Ethel didn't seem bothered either way, both of the two witches had thirty years experience living here, and they had gone through all of it; the broomsticks they were staring at might be a haphazard mishmash of magically unstable materials that didn't draw more power from their flyers than should be allowed, but hopefully they would be simpler to use than the last load.

Meanwhile, both Mildred and Ethel were in two minds about everything, and as they glanced at each other, once more communicating without words, they realised that they were sharing the same thoughts about what was happening. What happened in the next few hours would determine their future. They weren't worried about the broomsticks themselves. They had been homemaking broomsticks in Jumanji many times in the past, but this was the closest they would actually come to hope they could escape from Jumanji.

They just wished they had a more reliable and accurate way of finding whether or not flying into the Barrier with more than two people would actually work; it was one thing having a theory, theories were one thing, but real life was another. The fact that Jumanji was made for more than two users was…optimistic at best, it still wasn't proof.

"Right," Mildred sighed as she walked over to pick up her broomsticks, and tied the two spares to his back, deciding it was time to just stop thinking and worrying about whether or not this was going work, standing around all day was not going to help them get out of here.

Following her example, Ethel and the other two did the same before they kicked off into the air, and flew over Jumanji's twisted jungle.

* * *

While he continued to follow the stampeding animals through the jungle, Van Pelt looked into the air and caught sight of the three witches in flight. They were just small specks of black which moved against the daylight sky, but he knew it was them. As he paused and squinted his eyes to peer through the trees for a moment before he reached into the pocket of his suit to take out the battered and old fashioned but still extremely powerful telescope he kept there to track down and view his prey from a long distance and opened it up, he realised that he had only a small amount of time.

As he peered through the telescope, the hunter could see that the quartet of witches was flying quite fast, completely different from the last broomsticks they had used, but that meant nothing to the hunter as he watched them fly off.

Van Pelt lowered his telescope, and he grinned. They were heading for the Barrier, but he knew ways of getting in there that they did not. And besides, they didn't know that they would encounter all kinds of trouble within.

Fortunately, the flight to the Barrier was a short one. When they, at last, came to the fabled Barrier, the four witches landed on the ground. For Mildred and Ethel, this was a big event because they were about to fly over into the other side and hopefully find a way out of this game since they knew there had to be one, but they were just both unsure about what they would find or if it would even get them home at all. For Bella and Miranda, they only had hope to go on because they didn't have anything else.

Miranda and Bella both regarded the Barrier with trepidation. It was just how both adult witches had described it. It resembled a dome in shape and there was a glasslike effect as if they were in a shop full of those odd glasses where the glass was thicker than normal, more reflective, although it was hard to tell since it was wreathed in a smoky mist that made it virtually impossible to see beyond. Near the Barrier was just ordinary jungle. Somehow both seemed to fit in seamlessly.

"This is it?" Bella asked, waving at the Barrier while they stood nearby.

Mildred nodded. "This is it," she said solemnly. "We must have tried to break in a hundred times, but each time it was like smacking into a mirror head-on. All that time we knew animals could pass beyond. We really have no idea what's beyond this wall," she pointed at the mist wreathed dome-like shape towering above them.

Miranda wondered if either Mildred or Ethel had made guesses about what was inside, but she decided she didn't want to know. With their luck, the chances were that inside the Barrier, it would be no different to what was out there already. "When do we go in?" she asked.

"Right now," Ethel said, already mounting her broomstick while the others needed a moment to do the same. "We'll go in together," she went on, but anything else she had meant to say never happened because suddenly a tiger came running out of nowhere.

"LIFT-OFF!" Miranda yelled, and they kicked off in their panic, but Bella lifted off too quickly. She would have gone higher if her aunt hadn't caught on to her.

"Bella, it's okay, really, it's okay," Ethel said as soothingly as she could to calm her niece down.

Bella looked at her, ashamed about her panic. "I'm sorry, Auntie Ethel," she said.

Ethel sighed. "It's alright, that tiger was scary," she said as reassuringly as she could in that brief moment, but before she could say anything or even think of something else that would be meaningful to hear, Mildred and Miranda appeared. Ethel looked down below. The tiger was prowling close to the Barrier as if it was sensing their desire to pass. Ethel wondered if the tiger planned to follow them through, although none of the witches had plans to land on the ground.

Mildred took a deep breath. Then she grinned. "Why am I so terrified, we have wanted to get in there for ages?" she asked rhetorically.

Ethel smiled back at her friend. "I'm just as nervous," she admitted.

Mildred looked at the others. "Let's do it," she said, putting the butterflies swarming within her stomach to rest. "All together."

The witches all too deep breaths as she concentrated their magic on flying forwards through the Barrier. All four of them expected to hit something - Mildred and Ethel especially, since they had felt as if they'd get a concussion each, but there was nothing besides a slight experience of disorientation…and then it was over.

They were through the Barrier.

* * *

Author's note - Everything changes now they are nearer the end of the game.


	19. Chapter 19

I own nothing.

Please let me know what you think.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

No sooner had they entered the barrier, but then suddenly the broomsticks they were on lurched. Miranda clutched her stick tightly in worry and she turned to the others and saw that they having the same trouble as she was. "What's going on?"

Ethel's eyes were wide in surprise. "I don't know," she replied, but then her broomstick shuddered and lurched so hard she was almost sent flying through the air.

Mildred yelped as her broomstick tipped down for a moment before it righted itself. "It happened just as we passed through the Barrier," she said, holding on tightly as she screamed when her broomstick started to buck like a broncho.

"Mildred!" Ethel shouted, but it was little use, the broomstick the dark haired witch was flying on just flew straight downwards, taking Mildred screaming all the way down.

"Auntie Ethie!" Ethel heard her niece shout down, but she paid little attention to it, though she shouted back and she hoped that they got her message, "Try to land!"

Ethel aimed her own now very unstable broomstick downwards and flew after the other witch. It wasn't a comfortable ride. The broomstick kept threatening to buck her off, and Ethel was having to shove every last drop of magic she had spare to make sure the broomstick's uncomfortable and extremely dangerous flight got her to the ground, or near enough, in relative safety.

As she flew down and tried to control the broomstick, Ethel couldn't help but reflect about her friendship with Mildred Hubble even though they had been friends for a long time since they had resolved their differences enough for Ethel to confess she had believed Mildred and Maud had conspired to get rid of her during the Entrance Exam, though Mildred had countered by saying that if she had truly wanted to do that, then why would she confess what she had done to Ethel's potion.

For a long time, Ethel had never been able to go a day without considering what her friendship with Mildred had resulted. The pair of them had always shared a connection they had never truly understood, but in this place where they had to fight for survival, Ethel had learnt to depend on Mildred, and it was a very very difficult habit to break.

While she was momentarily concerned about her niece and her own best friend, Ethel decided to hope the two could find a way down on their own. While she had her own doubts about what they could handle, she had to hope…

Ethel pushed that out of her mind. She needed to concentrate on finding a way to land the broomstick safely while it was bucking like this. She just couldn't work out what was causing this; Ethel had always known Jumanji was unstable when it came to magic, but the nearest this compared to was that time when she and Mildred had both tried to use a type of bamboo near a swamp, though it could hardly be called bamboo since it looked like it was anything but.

The moment they had tried to fly the broomsticks made from the bamboo, both witches had taken on one of the most dangerous rides ever. Ethel and Mildred both compared the ride to the, at least now, dimly remembered hell they'd both been put through during that mess with the Founding Stone; but while all of the broomsticks in Jumanji ended up like that anyway with time, that bamboo had not liked them flying with it, and they had very nearly lost their lives.

But somehow Ethel had the feeling this was different. This didn't feel anything like the broomsticks losing their mojo….

"Ethel, Ethel I'm here," she heard Mildred call and distracted her from her thoughts, and it took her a while since the broomstick was making it impossible for her to look at any one place long enough without it bucking about, and it nearly made her crash more than once, but with some help from Mildred who called out to her, Ethel was able to finally see what had happened to her friend.

Mildred was in a tree, but it looked like she had either passed through the tree and had jumped off just in time because she was frightened of crashing into it, or she had just jumped off the first chance she got. "YAAAHH!" Ethel suddenly screamed when the broomstick she was riding suddenly crashed into a bush. It took the blonde woman a few minutes to dig her way out of the bush and free herself, and she winced as she got scratched by the thorns - what was it about Jumanji where everything on the ground had thorns? - but she ignored the pain and rushed over to the tree where Mildred was trying to free herself.

"What happened?" Ethel called up, giving into her curiosity.

Mildred gave her a funny look, clearly wondering why she was asking right now. "I saw the broom about to crash, so I threw myself off and I got stuck in this tree, now help me get out, please!"

Bridling a little at the tone in Mildred's voice though she quickly ignored it so she could focus on the more immediate problem, Ethel looked at the tree. Mildred was stuck in the tallest branches of the tree, but she couldn't get down. The branches she was using to hold on to were barely strong enough to hold her where she was, never mind strong enough to let her climb down. To make matters worse there were monkeys up there, and they were heading straight for Mildred, shrieking all the way.

There was only one solution as far as Ethel could see.

"Mildred, I'm going to try to conjure a trampoline," she called up instantly getting into her bossy stride although it was dialled down a bit "do you think you can let go when I've done it?"

"Yes," Mildred called back down, not seeing any other alternative although privately she was worried about what could go wrong.

"Okay," Ethel raised her hands and called upon all of her magic, praying the game would give them a break instead of shoving three problems on top of the one they had to deal with, but just before she could even cast the spell Miranda and Bella appeared. Both pre-teens looked breathless, and there were bits of twig in their hair, and Miranda had a few cuts on her already tattered uniform while Bella looked unhurt.

"Mildred's stuck in that tree," Ethel said shortly, amazed and thankful by the girl's timing. "I need to get her down before those monkeys get to her. We need to conjure a trampoline. Take my hands; I'll cast the spell, you give me some of your magic."

Up in the tree, Mildred was watching as the monkeys dashed towards her, shrieking and hollering all the way. She looked down and saw Ethel taking Miranda and Bella's hands just like how she and the other Cackles' students had reversed the curse Agatha had placed on the school to demolish the castle.

Ethel finished the spell and a bright red trampoline appeared. Mildred breathed a sigh of relief and she was about to jump out of the tree when she felt something unfamiliar appear in her hand. It felt like a roll of paper. Alarmed she glanced at her hand and she found herself definitely looking at a roll of paper.

"Mildred, jump!"

Mildred looked down took a deep breath and she let go, and just in time as well because the monkeys, sensing that she would be out of reach, were coming closer after doubling their speed. Mildred screamed all the way down and she fell on the trampoline and was lucky enough to grab hold of the sides from barely remembered gymnastic lessons from school before she bounced off. Mildred sank her head into the rubbery surface and let out a sobbing breath.

She was tired of this. She was tired of being in Jumanji, where any wrong step could mean getting yourself killed. Mildred had often been amazed she and Ethel had lasted this long. She knew it was not a good idea to get her hopes up, that they potentially had the way out of this hell she and Ethel and then later Miranda and Bella had been stuck in ever since the fateful days they'd made the mistake in playing the game of Jumanji, but truthfully Mildred didn't care. But right now she was just so damn tired of the game.

"Mildred…," she heard Ethel say but Mildred lifted a hand.

"I'm okay," Mildred whispered clearly before she lifted her head off of the glorious surface of the trampoline. "I'm just taking a quick break. That broomstick crashed right through that tree. If I hadn't grabbed onto those branches, I'd have crashed into the ground. It just went so _fast_. I could literally see the _splinters_ that stupid broomstick was turned into, and then I couldn't get down….," Mildred's voice shook as she buried her head into the trampoline again.

"Mildred, we all know we need a rest," Ethel began quietly, "but we need to go now. Monkeys… that tiger that attacked us outside and came inside the Barrier with us. We don't know what else is out there."

Ethel half expected Mildred to protest, say she just wanted a break, but while Ethel could honestly claim she didn't blame the brunette, they had to keep moving. But Mildred didn't whine or moan. Instead, she let out a dragged out groan and lifted herself upright. "Yeah, alright," she replied wearily, and she picked herself up and started to climb off of the trampoline. Just as she did she realised she was still holding onto the roll of paper that had appeared in her hand.

Ethel noticed it before Mildred could do anything. "What's that?" she asked, pointing.

Mildred looked down at the paper and handed it over silently. "I don't know," she replied, "it just appeared in my hand before I jumped."

Ethel took the paper and unrolled it silently before she saw what was on it. Mildred got off of the trampoline, helped by Miranda and Bella, and together they walked over to Ethel, seeing the older blonde's wide eyes.

Mildred silently walked to stand behind Ethel so she could read the paper from behind. Her own eyes widened when she saw what was written there.

" _Congratulations!_

 _You have Reached the next level of Jumanji._

 _To finish this game, you need to find the Leopard's head and take it up to the tallest peak and place the Head inside the Mouth of the Tiger. Once you have done this, you need to call out the name of Jumanji!"_

"I knew it," Mildred whispered, making the others stare at her before the brunette went on, "I knew the Barrier was the key to getting out of here. Now we've got to find this leopard's head and take it up to the tallest peak, and then we can all go home!"

Bella grinned, delighted that it all sounded so straightforward, but then something occurred to her. "But….what is this leopard's head? And how do we get to this peak?"

Miranda was re-reading the paper again for the third time. "I think we'd now both when we see them, but like Bella says, how would we reach the peak when the broomsticks don't work?"

"Look!" Mildred suddenly said, pointing at the trampoline. The brunette had been looking around for inspiration for plans to help them with this new turn of events, and she had suddenly seen something wrong with the trampoline.

The other witches turned to look, but Ethel sent her friend a look. "It's the trampoline, Mildred-," she was about to say but Miranda interrupted her when she saw what it was that made Mildred cry out. "No, look at the stands."

Ethel looked again and this time she gaped in surprise when she saw the metal of the trampoline stands look like they were fading away. Very slowly the colour of the trampoline itself started to fade, like a photograph left in the open and bright sun. It turned from a deep red to a lighter red and then to a darkish pink to a pink colour, fading until it turned to white, and then it suddenly disappeared.

"It looks like nothing we conjure lasts long, even with all of us providing the magic to make it possible," Mildred observed, her eyes wide as she took in the now empty space where the trampoline had once stood.

Ethel nodded, stunned.

Bella looked at them both, her expression telling. "I take it this hasn't happened before?" she asked pointedly.

"No," Mildred replied.

Ethel shook herself out of her stupor. "Never. We already knew we couldn't use magic for everything, but whenever we conjured something it would always remain around. I don't get this," she replied, "I've never heard of any magic that can do this."

"It looked like the magic that had been used to conjure the trampoline was being…..sucked out," Miranda whispered.

"Sucked….? That's it," Mildred said suddenly, looking at Ethel, who looked back at her in some surprise. She wasn't expecting Mildred to say anything like that.

"What?" the older blonde witch asked, confused.

"Sucked out. The magic of the trampoline was sucked out. Every time we use magic, it doesn't seem to work, but what if its because _our magic is being sucked away before it can have an effect?_ Ethel, I think I'm beginning to understand now!" Mildred looked at the blonde who was looking back at her with frustration in her eyes.

"Understand what?!" Ethel shouted before she jumped when she heard the cries of the forgotten monkeys up above. For some reason the monkeys had left the witches alone, which was a far cry compared to the last time Mildred and Ethel had encountered them. But the blonde and the other two witches turned their attention back when Mildred said something they didn't expect.

"I think Jumanji is alive."

Ethel sighed. "Mildred, we already knew this was a magical game-," she began, but the brunette spoke over her.

"No, that's not what I mean," she was serious now, "I think Jumanji is _a living thing._ Its food is magic, like what you, me, Bella and Miranda, and God alone knows how many other people have come into this place produce. I don't know how it does it, but it would explain so much. I'm starting to think we've got this place all wrong. Look at our broomsticks; every time we use them we have to push a lot of our magic into them to keep them flying. Where does all of that magic go? I'm starting to think the game sucks our magic off."

Ethel was still sceptical. "Mildred-," she tried to say, but Mildred once more spoke over her.

"Ethel, have you never seen water be soaked up by a plant?" Mildred asked. "I'm telling you, this game is alive. It's using our magic to feed on. We have got to get out of here."

Ethel clapped a hand onto Mildred's arm. "Hold it," she said and she waited while Mildred calmed down before she spoke again, "we're hearing what you're saying, Mildred. Really, we are, and we're sure there's some truth to what you're saying, but that's not important right now. We have to get out of Jumanji. We have to find this peak, and we need to find this leopard's head."

Miranda was looking thoughtfully at the piece of paper that they still had. "Maybe finding it will be relatively easy," she suggested, "I mean if this game is alive like Mildred suggests then it will probably be somewhere where we're going to be."

Bella thought about what her friend had said and felt it did hold a potion. "Come on, we might as well go," she said.

The party walked all day after that, knowing that they would have a hard time finding this leopard's head. As they walked through the jungle, Mildred and Ethel were extremely tense. They had become so reliant on their homemade broomsticks which were a mishmash of different bits and pieces that they never really landed, but this was the first time in a very long while where they had walked over a substantial distance without knowing what to do next.

While they were walking and casting her eyes around to make sure they weren't being tracked and stalked by either animal or one of the savage humans who lived in this hell, Mildred couldn't help but think about her brainwave the game was alive. She and Ethel had more than once debated about the nature of Jumanji besides their obvious mutual agreement the place was magical in some way, and it drained their magic to the point where their most powerful spells had a 50/50 chance of working properly.

But sometimes they had also wondered if the game was alive since it refused to let them go, and although Mildred could tell that Ethel believed the idea itself was sound, she was reluctant to believe it, though she wasn't sure why. She had a feeling that Ethel didn't believe in ideas like that on principle; the Founding Stone was one thing, it was a part of Cackles, but Jumanji was its own little reality.

And yet….although they'd had evidence before what had happened to trampoline clinched it and made her certain, Mildred and Ethel had not given Jumanji's nature much thought….

What was that? Mildred paused when she heard something, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed Ethel stop as well, and the older blonde witch grabbed hold of Bella to hold her still. Miranda saw Ethel grab hold of Bella. "What's going on-?"

"Sssh!" Mildred hissed as she listened. There was something…out there…

But Bella wouldn't be quiet. "Auntie Ethel-?"

"Be quiet," Ethel whispered, looking worriedly at Mildred. "What is that?"

But Mildred wasn't listening. She walked over quietly to a tree and bent down. She looked at the trunk as it shook, vibrating gently at first and then with increasing violence. Above the branches and the leaves creaked and cracked as the movement began to affect them as well. Mildred stood up in fear when she saw, in a distance, a number of animals running past without once seeing them. They looked frightened, and up above there was a flock of birds flying overhead.

Mildred's breath caught in her throat as she realised what was happening. _Oh, no!_

She swung round just as the shaking grew, and she could see the same fear and realisation in Ethel's own eyes. "RUN! It's A STAMPEDE!"

That was more than enough for all of them. They broke into a furious run, even as they could hear the sounds of the elephants trumpeting. Suddenly behind them, they could hear the sounds as the stampeding animals smashed the part of the jungle which they had just been in, and the animals never once lost their momentum or their stride.

Mildred saw Bella take a look behind them as she and Miranda both struggled to run through the dense tree trunks. "Don't look back," she yelled over the noise. The animals were now dangerously close behind them, and they were being chased into a section of jungle that began to be covered in increasingly dense cobwebs which became thicker and thicker as they went through. The four witches ignored the webbing around them as they heard the deafening cries of the elephants and the other animals which mixed with the sounds of smashing trees, some of them almost landing in the path of the witches as they went deeper and deeper into this cobwebbed part of the jungle.

Miranda saw a hole in the ground too late to do anything because they went falling through the ground and later on none of the witches would be truly sure about how far they had fallen into this suddenly dark labyrinth. There was a fair bit of light streaming down on them from above, but they could hear the sounds of the stampede stomping on the floor above. To their horror, the ceiling collapsed and the animals fell screaming and shrieking in surprise as they arrived, and they scrambled around in a panic, forcing the witches back in fear that the massive animals would smash them to pieces.

It was Bella who noticed something in the darkness, scuttling towards them all. "Auntie Ethel, what is that?" the terrified girl whispered, pointing in the distance.

Ethel looked. At first, she couldn't see anything, but then she saw the light bouncing off of ivory-like fangs, and a shiny black carapace. "Oh my… Merlin!" she whispered as the spider appeared, and from behind, scuttling after the first, with their fangs and legs clicking sinisterly.

Bella screamed at the sight of the spiders before one of them appeared, avoiding the light fiercely while many of the spiders swarmed around the stampeding animals which were struggling to get up while the spiders swarmed over them. They were massive things. Their bodies were bulbous, covered in a shiny black carapace, while their legs were encased in what looked like body armour, while from their heads their many eyes gleamed menacingly as they took in their fresh new prey, and their fangs clicked in anticipation with venom dripping from them like they were salivating.

But the spiders were focused on the animals, and they heard the cries of panic from the zebras, the snorting from the rhinos, and the trumpeting of the elephants which deafened the witches in the enclosed space. Mildred and Ethel looked around, hoping to find something they could use.

"We're going to have to use magic to get out of here!" Mildred said urgently to Ethel.

The blonde rolled her eyes. "I knew that Mildred Hubble, but how? You saw what happened with the trampoline."

But Mildred didn't reply at first. She had just seen something green starting to glow gently on the floor. She looked down and she gasped in surprise when she saw a jade-coloured jewel lying at her feet, a jewel carved in the shape of a leopard's head, complete with spots. Mildred quickly bent down and snatched the jewel up. And then…suddenly they were in the open air.

Bella looked around in surprise. "How did we get out?"

Miranda looked at the older witches, she was about to ask what had happened, but then she caught sight of the jewel in Mildred's hand. "Where did you get that?" she asked instead.

"It was down there," Ethel replied, still looking at the jewel in surprise. She looked at Mildred. "Why was it down there?" she went on.

Mildred shrugged. "I don't know," she replied, but any further speculation disappeared when they were reminded of what was beneath their feet. "Let's get out of here," she said, cradling the leopard to her chest. But before they could leave another piece of paper appeared out of thin air in front of Ethel who unrolled it and read out aloud.

"'Congratulations! You have found the Leopard's head, however, you now have to find the Tiger's Eye and the Elephant's trunk as well. They are out there somewhere, waiting for you to retrieve it before you can leave Jumanji. Remember, when you have found these final tokens, take them to the top of the peak. When you have, place the new tokens into the eye-sockets of and call the name of Jumanji!"' she lowered the paper, dejected.

Mildred looked angrily down at the leopard's head. "If something looks too good to be true, it usually is," she said angrily.

"What?" Bella asked curiously.

"Mum used to say that often once or twice whenever something turned up out there some new 'it' but she was always sceptical about them," Mildred explained, although she was so vague she confused the other witches, though they got the gist. "Now Jumanji is setting out to prove it to us."

Defeated Mildred looked at the others and down at the leopard's head in irritation. Ethel took charge with a sigh. "We'd better get away from here."

Everyone was only too happy to leave.


	20. Chapter 20

I don't own anything.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"How are we going to find the Tiger's Eye and this Elephant's trunk?" Miranda asked as they walked through the jungle. The group hadn't really spoken after they had quickly gotten away from the spiders, all of them trying to keep alert for anything in this part of Jumanji, and yet all of them had one thing on their minds.

The way out.

All of the witches were frustrated there seemed to be one hurdle after another in Jumanji that was stopping them from leaving the twisted game, and all of the witches were trying to think of where the Elephants' trunk and this Tiger's Eye was. Miranda herself had been trying to remember all the bits and pieces she had gathered about what she knew about board games to help her find a lead they could potentially use to help them find what they needed to find so they could get out of here, but since Jumanji was in a league of its own, that knowledge was pretty much obsolete.

No-one answered her question. All of them had been thinking of little else for hours.

Mildred was silent for a moment. After they had left the spiders to feast on the stampeding herds of animals that had stepped into the hole and fell into their cave and they'd discovered there was a way out of Jumanji, only to be brought down by the fact they would need to do a treasure hunt in a part of this living nightmare of a game in order to win their freedom.

Neither Mildred nor Ethel had ever been beyond the Barrier before. They didn't know what lived here, and although they had encountered spiders like the ones that had attacked them in that cave, they didn't know if there were other places like that in this part of the jungle. It wouldn't surprise either of the older witches since Jumanji seemed to take a perverse pleasure in causing them pain.

Both of the older witches had had ambivalent feelings towards getting out of Jumanji over the years and the thought of one day getting through the Barrier had always been with them, though they had never been able to stop themselves fantasising about escaping. Unfortunately, both girls had different takes on their fantasies.

Ethel had thought it wouldn't be so straightforward. The more pragmatic blonde witch had felt there was something in the game they could use, but she didn't feel it would be as easy as her brunette counterpart. In comparison, Mildred had been the more optimistic out of the two witches, even if a part of her felt Ethel had a good point, that it would not be as simple and as clear-cut as she hoped it would be. Still, that hadn't stopped her from hoping.

"Who knows?" Mildred sighed, still angry that they were so close to escaping from Jumanji, only for another hurdle to get in the way. Somehow a part of her wasn't in the least bit surprised especially after spending thirty years here. She also knew that a part of Ethel, the part of her that was still a teenager who was so moody it was not funny, was jumping up and down smugly her expectations had been confirmed about what lay beyond the Barrier.

But truthfully they had both been right, and Mildred knew Ethel was aware of that.

"I don't even know how we're going to start," Ethel commented. "I mean, how in the name of Merlin are we meant to find a Tiger's Eye and an Elephant's Trunk?"

"Maybe they'll come to us?" Bella suggested brightly, wincing a little as her boots caused her feet to ache again. "I mean, the Leopard's Head appeared when we least expected it, right?"

Mildred shook her head. "I don't think it will work like that, Bella," she replied, looking overheard to watch for animals that would attack them for a moment, "You're right. We weren't expecting the Head to appear like that, but I doubt Jumanji would just make these tokens," she pointed to the bundle attached to Ethel's belt, "easy for us to find. I think the Leopard's head was just an incentive. A nice few points for us all around. Now the tricky bit is here. Now we have to find the tokens and use them to hopefully get out of here!"

Ethel noticed Mildred's voice becoming bitter and bitter, but at the same time, she noticed that Bella was wilting with every word. "Mildred, calm down," she advised.

Mildred glowered at her, but she sent an apologetic look at Bella, whom she also noticed was wilting. "I'm sorry, Bella," she replied, "It's just…it's just frustrating."

Bella smiled as comfortingly at Mildred as she could. "I know," she said simply. She may not have liked how Mildred had become harsh which was odd coming from the older brunette, but she could understand it.

Ethel was looking into the air as she tried to find out where this "peak" was, but she couldn't see anything past the canopy, except the dark shapes of birds which they could hear from where they were. An idea was coming into her mind although they'd all wondered if it was feasible at the moment.

"Do you think if we build a broomstick from here it would work?" Ethel asked Mildred.

"It might. I don't like the idea of giving this game even more magic that it's already taken from us already," Mildred replied, "but I don't think we've got much choice. We don't know how high this peak is, or where it is and we might have no other way to get there except by broom. But…," she paused as a nasty thought occurred to her.

"But what?"

Mildred sighed. "What if the game stops us from riding them to the peak? We've been able to fly before, but that was outside the Barrier. As soon as we got through, we nearly got killed in the crashes. We don't want to go through that again."

"Yeah, but we don't know for sure!" Ethel pointed out strongly.

Mildred sighed again, hoping that this wasn't going to be the start of one of their frequent arguments. She and Ethel still sometimes fought despite their desire to survive and their acceptance to work together. But right now they didn't need a pointless argument that would get them nowhere. They still had to find the last two tokens and find this peak, and then hopefully find the way to escape.

Bella stepped forward diplomatically. "Perhaps we should try it anyway?" she suggested. "Let's try to make one broomstick and see if it works."

"Yeah," Miranda stepped forward, looking between her three fellow witches in agreement to what was being said. "Let's make one broomstick and test it right here. If it levitates high enough, then we will know if it works out okay, and if it can move then we'll know its safe to use."

"Yeah, but how long would it work?" Mildred asked, hating to be the voice of doom here but after the recent disappointment, she found it very hard to be optimistic at this point. "Our old brooms broke down when we got through the Barrier."

"Since when were you pessimistic, Mildred Hubble?" Ethel asked, looking at her with concern since she knew this wasn't typical Mildred Hubble behaviour. The personalities between the two older witches seemed to have switched places, with Mildred becoming pessimistic like Ethel, always pointing out the flaws while Ethel seemed to have become the optimistic one.

"I felt we were so near the end," Mildred said shortly before she looked around herself with a sigh. "Okay," she went on to change the awkward subject entirely, "let's find what we can to make the broomstick."

While the witches foraged for the bits needed to make the broomstick, Ethel walked over to where Mildred was gathering rushes and twigs for the tail end of the broom.

"What's the matter?" she whispered quietly while she kept a close watch on her niece and Miranda while at the same time she focused on Mildred and getting to the point of what was bugging her.

Mildred didn't pause in her work. A part of her was actually tempted to just deny anything was wrong, but she decided to just get it off of her chest. She had never really had the mentality needed to keep things that were bothering her a secret anyway, and this was no exception. "I'm tired, and I think we all are, of the surprises that this place throws at us all the time," she said quietly at last after trying to work out how she could explain this while she kept watch on the younger witches, "First, we were surprised when we got here, then it never stopped; finding out our magic didn't really work here, that we could make brooms and fly them but we didn't realise at the time we could only fly for a short time and then they'd fall apart. Van Pelt. The HeadHunters, and all the others. It never stopped. And then we learn about the vines, the fly-traps that are about twenty-foot tall and have teeth that can slice the pair of us in half. And then we discover the Barrier. Now we're through it, we find there is a way out, but we've got to find two out of three things to get out."

Ethel looked down and nodded in understanding. "I know, it is frustrating. But we can get out of here, forever."

"I hope so," Mildred said earnestly while she finished her task and gathered what she had found and took them to the base of a tree. "I just don't know how much more we can go through."

But Ethel wasn't finished. "What else is wrong?" she asked.

Mildred closed her eyes. "I heard Miranda and Bella talking about my mother," she confessed.

Ethel gaped at her. Whatever she had expected, it certainly wasn't that. "I know it's selfish," Mildred said quietly, "You've got Esmerelda….and Sybil," Mildred stumbled over the names; she and Ethel had sworn not to think too much about their families while they were here since it wouldn't help them to escape even though they both held onto their loved ones in their hearts and used them to give them both the strength to go on when it would be simple and easy to just give up.

Mildred broke off and looked down at her feet.

Ethel licked her lips. "What did they say?"

Mildred looked up. Her eyes and her expression was now bleak though the blonde witch knew full well her friend was holding back the worst of her emotions. "I told them both I didn't want to know how my mother is doing at the moment. But they talked about it shortly before Van Pelt fired that gun, debating whether or not I should know anyway. I think they were hoping to try to give me something to fight for, but I don't know. I don't know what was going through their minds when they were talking, but I knew they weren't doing it out of malice. They said my mother was giving up hope of finding me after thirty years," she replied, her voice trembling with emotion, and Ethel could see the brunette was struggling hard against letting it all out and screaming into the sky.

"I'm sorry," Ethel replied. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

"It's not your fault," Mildred replied back, gazing at Ethel with such a sense of sadness and empathy the blonde witch was taken aback. "I'm sorry," she said, "I know you want to get back to your sisters as well-."

"I do. I'm trying hard not to scream in rage as well," Ethel replied before she admitted her own feelings. "We're both frustrated, Mildred. But we could be so close now."

Mildred nodded.

* * *

It didn't take long for the broom to be made from the foraged materials and when it was finished they tried their hardest to keep their…concerns about how safe this was going to be. Mildred might have had a few negative waves about the broomsticks working, but truthfully after their own near-misses, since they'd gotten through the Barrier, all of the witches were worried about what might actually occur if they tried to fly now. They also put some thought about what Mildred had said about the game being alive.

The idea was far-fetched if you thought about it at first, but the more they thought about it, the coincidences, the trampoline, they wondered if Mildred's hunch was right about the game.

After staring at the makeshift broom for a few minutes, Miranda became fed up because no-one was moving towards it and trying it out, after all that work finding the bits and putting them together. Deep down she knew they were worried about it, but they had to try it out now.

"So, who's going to try it out?" Miranda asked, deep down hoping it wouldn't be her, and judging from the worried expression she saw clearly in Bella's eyes, the younger Hallow was not going to try it out at first, but they would be more than willing to fly again and save themselves the trouble of getting to the top of this peak, especially since they had no idea how high it was, but knowing this hellish realm, it was likely to be tall enough to pierce the atmosphere. So that left Mildred and Ethel. Both of them looked at each other.

Mildred didn't particularly want to try it out, but she decided to take one for the team. And yet… "Why don't we all try it out one at a time?" she suggested, seeing the same worries and fears she saw in the others but knowing at the same time deep inside they had to try all this out. "I'll go first," she went on, bravely walking towards the broomstick and picking it up.

She didn't sit on its side because she didn't know how sturdy the broom was, and she very gently willed her magic to lift her up. The broomstick shuddered but it was starting to levitate slowly off the ground.

"It's rising!" Bella cheered.

Ethel hushed her. The older blonde witch watched as Mildred concentrated on just lifting the broomstick up. "How is it?" she asked, knowing that Mildred was doing what they had done with the broomsticks they had made in random parts of the jungle. All the different woods worked with magic differently from each other, and Mildred and Ethel had both learnt the hard way some woods lifted better than most. It had been a nightmare for them to learn to take things slowly, but they had learnt from experience.

Now they were back to square one.

"I can feel my magic being pulled into the broomstick," Mildred replied, "but it is not draining me. It feels safe enough to raise it. I'm going to try to lift it higher."

"Okay, just be careful."

Mildred concentrated and willed the broomstick to go upwards slowly like a hot air balloon. She knew if Miss Hardbroom were here, she would make some scathing criticism about a lack of grace, but Mildred was past caring. This was too delicate as it was. The broom rose slowly and Mildred lifted her head so she could see if there was a gap in the jungle canopy. The last thing she wanted was to hit any branch after her recent crash.

She smiled when she saw there was a gap, but it was a very small one. But it should do.

Mildred blew out a breath as she rose slowly up and up.

* * *

Mildred felt the familiar drain on her magic but she ignored it. In any case, it was a very slight drain. That worried her; after seeing what had happened to the trampoline, she had expected her magic to just be drained, sucked out of her as soon as she touched the broom. On an intellectual level, Mildred wondered if the Barrier only accepted magic being used on the inside, especially since the trampoline had disappeared into nothingness.

For a moment while she was lifting the broom Mildred conjured up a horrible mental image of her magic being drained away like a tap of water being opened and chugging down a drain.

She ignored the branches and the leaves in the trees as she poked her head out over the top, startling a small flock of birds resting on the top of the trees, but they didn't attack her. Mildred calmly pushed more of her magic into the broom to raise herself higher so she could see more of this new part of the jungle.

It wasn't that dissimilar to what Mildred had seen for the last three decades; miles and miles of leafy greens with some trees much taller than others, making them look like green hills in a rolling countryside that covered the jungle floor but made it impossible for her to see the finer details. No change there. That meant she and the others couldn't find any decent water or food sources. Thinking of food made her stomach ache; she hadn't had anything to eat or drink for hours, and she was both starving and thirsty. She pushed that to the side - she knew she and the others would find something to soothe their needs soon, and she looked around to find the peak.

On the ground, Ethel was looking upwards. From where she was standing it looked like all of her attention was focused on her friend, and indeed a lot of it was, but she was also paying attention to everything around her while she had a hand on both Miranda and Bella's shoulders to keep them close to her while she looked up at the space where Mildred had disappeared into.

The older blonde knew full well Mildred was taking the opportunity to look around, and she wouldn't be too long. Meanwhile, Bella was fidgeting, so Ethel pulled her niece closer to her side.

They just had to be patient.

Mildred didn't have any problems finding the peak that she and the others were meant to take to the top to so then they could escape Jumanji once and for all; she could hardly miss it, a jagged, sharp chunk of rock that looked like a giant shark tooth rising from the jungle. The peak was quite a distance away on foot, but it was easy if you had a broom.

Mildred smiled and she lifted herself higher. As she rose higher above the canopies of trees, the broom began to shudder. Mildred looked down at the handle she was holding tightly with horror. Was it happening already? Was the broom breaking down? She ground her teeth together, and she tried to force the broomstick down. It shuddered a little bit, but it dropped lower.

And then the shuddering stopped.

The broom was responding to her in the same way that it had before. It wasn't shuddering.

 _Interesting,_ she thought to herself, _that's new._

Ethel was relieved when Mildred returned to the ground. The brunette blew out a breath and got off of the broom, and picked it up by the handle. "Well?" the blonde asked.

"It lifted up alright and I saw the peak," Mildred said while wondering if the effect she had just experienced was because of that specific type of wood, or just some weird property only found in this part of Jumanji.

"You did?" Ethel said before she could check herself; she mentally kicked herself, knowing that Mildred would have used the opportunity to take a look around.

"Yeah. It's in that direction," Mildred raised a hand and jabbed in the right direction. "We're going to need broomsticks, but we can't lift the brooms too high up; when I was testing it I levitated higher and it began to shake. We can only rise a specific height before it begins to shake about, but apart from that it moves great, and it's also a smooth ride, much smoother than most. If we're going to make the brooms now, we'd better do it now."

It took the witches over an hour to make the brooms. They had to scavenge around the jungle they were in, avoiding snakes that lashed out; Bella had nearly been bitten when a patterned viper tried to bite her when it lashed out, but she had been pulled back just in time, and Merlin knew what else while they tried to find the right materials for the brooms.

When they were finished the witches got onto their broomsticks, and they were about to lift off when there was a snapping sound and Mildred gasped.

"Mildred, what's wrong?" Miranda asked.

Mildred closed her eyes and it looked like she was about to fall asleep, but she pushed aside the drowsiness with a visible effort. She reached out a hand and wrenched something black from the back of her head. It was some kind of dart, it was covered in a black substance that resembled tar. It went everywhere over Mildred's hand and dribbled down to the ground.

"Ethel-!" Mildred whispered before more snaps came from all around, and more darts were fired. Bella gave a little cry and she and Miranda went with Ethel to hide behind a tree.

Mildred collapsed to her knees, shaking. Her eyes were fluttering open and closed, and she was taking slow breaths as she struggled to stay awake.

Ethel wasted no time. She lifted up her hand and conjured up a shield. "Get her back, now!" she ordered bossily, making it clear she wanted them to do it without complaint.

The two younger girls tried to get to Mildred, but the shield started to fade, and the two girls skidded to a halt.

"GET HER!" Ethel shouted as she struggled to reconjure the shield; she could feel all of her magic draining away as she struggled to maintain the shield and keep it strong before she noticed Mildred raising a shaky hand. "Mildred?"

Whatever was in that drug was making her drowsy. She could feel a heat travelling through her body, and the stench from the black liquid that she could smell on her hands and on the back of her neck and shoulder had a soporific effect that was making it difficult for her to concentrate. She clenched her fists on the ground as she felt herself getting weaker and weaker, still, she forced herself to push the effects aside and she lifted her head. She raised a shaky hand.

"Mildred?" she heard someone call, and she opened her eyes and she could see an unfocused woman nearby, but who was this Mildred? "Mildred," she heard the woman say again, "are you alright?" Suddenly she remembered that she was Mildred. In fact, she remembered everything.

"E-Ethel," Mildred stammered as she fought to keep herself awake. She had to focus on this because she was about to say something that would stun Ethel rigid. "Y-you're going to have to leave me."

"What?" Ethel shouted. "Mildred, we can't. We made a pact-!"

Mildred closed her eyes to fight the waves of fatigue. She felt as if she were being wrapped in a hot blanket that was making it harder and harder for her to concentrate. But Ethel's point reminded her of when she and the blonde had agreed to always stick together and to never leave the other behind. For years - how many? - they had never once broken it.

But now they had to.

Mildred didn't want Ethel to leave her like this, but if she didn't go then they would never get out. She dimly remembered from the first time she and Ethel had played this cursed hell of a game if they called 'Jumanji' out when they reached the peak with everything they needed, then they'd get out alive.

"Ethel, look at me," Mildred whispered wearily as she struggled to concentrate. "I can't hold my eyes open for…much….longer," her eyes fluttered again as she voice slurred. She went rigid and her eyes bulged open as more darts hit her in the back.

"Please….just go…. I'll try to find my own way back to you," Mildred whispered hoarsely. "Just find….the remaining…things…. we need….to get…. out."

With that Mildred lost the battle with whatever these bushmen had used and she fell unconscious.

"NOO!" Ethel screeched and she was about to charge around the tree to get to Mildred, but Bella and Miranda both pulled her towards the broomsticks. Within minutes the three witches were in the air. Ethel looked down desperately, hoping to see Mildred regaining consciousness and getting back to her feet, but she didn't. Ethel wanted to get back and to rescue Mildred, but Bella or Miranda, she didn't know and frankly did not care which, tried to pull her back.

In the end, it took one of the younger girls' who fiercely pointed out a large number of figures moving closer and closer to the body of the fallen witch.

But Ethel wasn't bothered.

She raised her hand and tried to curse them with the strongest and the most lethal spells she had in her spell repertoire. Ethel had not wasted her life at Hallow Manor. When she had been younger and her worthless parents had ignored her, she had hit the libraries while juggling time with her sisters. She had learnt many things about magic. Including some very nasty curses designed to inflict pain. She knew if anyone including the Great Wizard saw what she was doing, they would think she really was evil.

But at this point in time, Ethel didn't care.

She had to get Mildred back.

On a more rational level, she knew she was wasting her time, and when she saw the shadowy natives were unaffected by the spells, her more rational mindset returned. Ethel realised it was hopeless, and in any case, it was their turn to fire back. They fired a number of arrows and those foul-smelling darts, but it was only the height the witches were hovering at on their brooms and their practiced agility on the brooms that allowed them to keep out of the way.

"I'm sorry," Ethel whispered to her friend, and she took off higher.

Out of the shadows of the trees and the bushes, dark figures came out of hiding from the spell chain Ethel had cast. They instinctively wanted to chase after the witches, but then they looked down at the crumpled body of the witch they had hit.


	21. Chapter 21

The Curse of Jumanji.

The heat from the sun burned down from the sky as the three witches flew over the jungle as fast as they could go on the brooms, bypassing flocks of birds as they went. The three witches noticed the difference in the brooms as they travelled. While they felt the usual draining, the three witches didn't feel it too strongly as they had in the past, particularly recently when they had nearly killed themselves. They did try to go higher, but like Mildred had discovered, the brooms started to become unstable and erratic. All three witches quickly lowered themselves before the brooms became so erratic and unstable it would have been physically impossible to just remain on them.

Finally Ethel had had more than enough when she noticed a clearing coming up, and she saw the distant view of a waterfall. "We're going down," she said, and she pointed her broomstick down towards it.

Hearing her aunt Bella turned around. "What?" she asked. "Auntie Ethel, where are you-?"

"We're going to land there," Ethel interrupted her niece harshly and she pointed the broom she was riding towards the waterfall, her voice hard enough to make it exceptionally clear to the two younger girls that she was going and nothing they were going to say would have any impact on her decision though she did feel the need to inform them both of the rationale, "we need a rest, fresh water, and hopefully find something to eat."

Bella and Miranda both shared a look when they heard Ethel's hard tone and they silently followed her lead, both of them seeing it was a truly poor move to test Ethel's patience. The flight took them down into a very small clearing with a waterfall. All rather a number of waterfalls that went down and down. The three witches could hear the sound of the water crashing against the rocks below before they landed on a small and narrow ledge close to the waterfall. When they landed Ethel looked down in satisfaction, liking what she saw. There weren't that many animals here, but since the place was so conveniently rocky, the terrain would be awful for everything but a few animals. But at the moment this was one of the few times where they had landed somewhere in Jumanji's open jungle and had been close to the animals and yet they couldn't reach them.

Ethel noticed the ledge they were on also had a narrow rocky passage that went around the falling curtain of fast-moving water, but where it went she didn't know at the moment.

Ethel wasn't worried about that, although a part of her knew she should be thinking more about her niece and Miranda, and yet at this point she was too upset by what had happened to Mildred to truly care. She did keep watch for any signs of any particularly dangerous animals nearby, but fortunately the animals nearby were a little bit too busy to take that much notice of them. But Ethel knew the animals here well enough to know they would turn at any moment. For now they seemed placid enough while they fed by the waterfall and the small river.

The witches propped their broomsticks against the rocky wall and with some effort they cupped some of the rapidly moving and foaming water into their hand to drink it. As they drunk from the waterfall, they felt much better. The witches hadn't realised up until that moment just how dehydrated they were, but unlike non-magical people who didn't have any magic to help them counter the effects over a long period it didn't bother them that much although their magic was only a temporary solution.

Ethel was solemnly drinking her own water her mind lost in thought while she took a look on the ledge they were on.

Meanwhile Bella was looking at her aunt with worry. She could see that the older Hallow was distracted. _No,_ she corrected herself quickly, _she's not just distracted, she's terrified._

While a part of Bella would be jealous for Aunt Ethel having a companion in Mildred Hubble, the rest of her knew the two older witches must have become quite close together, and then again Ethel had mentioned some kind of pact.

Bella racked her brain for what she knew about magical pacts, though she had no of knowing if Mildred and Ethel had bothered entered into one, though she had a feeling it was likely. Magical pacts were considered to be sacred, they were meant to be a bond between witches or wizards, so if the two had entered into one it would explain why Ethel had been so frightened.

There was nothing dangerous about them. They were seen as a mutual agreement, a bond between magical people. In magical culture, a pact was a very powerful form of friendship. A very powerful form of friendship. As Bella thought about the matter closely, it would make sense the pair of them had been so frightened about being alone to fend for themselves they would have formed a pact.

It also made sense Aunt Ethel would be terrified of violating the pact, though Mildred had ensured Ethel took off and left her behind, seeing there was no point in them all being captured.

"She'll be alright, you know Auntie Ethie," Bella whispered hesitantly.

Ethel took a deep breath when she felt the urge to shout at her niece. What had happened was not Bella's fault and Ethel knew that. "I know," she whispered shakily, bottling the rage she was feeling inside. "Mildred's tough. She'll find a way out of…wherever she was taken," she added, desperately hoping it was true.

Bella swallowed. What she was about to ask was extremely personal, but she needed to know. "Auntie Ethel," she began, wringing her hands nervously.

Ethel looked at her niece, wondering what was wrong now. "What is it?" she asked.

"You said to Mildred something about a pact," Bella began, though in her eyes it looked like she had an idea already about what was meant by that, "what did you mean?"

Ethel glared at her. "You know precisely what I meant!"

Bella shivered visibly with fear at her aunt's glare and Ethel sighed. "I'm sorry, sweetheart," she said, making sure the two girls knew she meant it, "but the pact Mildred and I came up with should be obvious to anybody."

Miranda licked her lips. "When did you set it up?" she asked, wondering how Ethel would take the question.

Ethel sighed. "We didn't do it the moment we arrived in Jumanji. I don't know how much time passed before we became more friendly," she added, thinking back to those first days where they had found themselves trapped in this living hell disguised as nothing more than a mundane board game. "but it was a while before either of us learnt to trust one another. When we both got here, our relationship was the same it had been for three years, relatively speaking."

Ethel closed her eyes and walked around the ledge for a bit. "The pact isn't what you might be thinking," she whispered, "we won't die in case we failed to help the other. But we became friends not long after we came. The pact is just something we used to strengthen it."

Bella knew what her aunt was talking about. "My mum and Auntie Sybil told me stories about your fights," she commented, knowing from her mother's own stories there had been a lot of conflict between the two witches. "It couldn't have been easy for you having to suddenly live here with someone you fought a long war with."

Ethel snorted though inwardly she had no idea how to really take that same remark, especially since it was very true. But she needed to set the record straight with her niece. "There was a lot more to it than that, sweetie," she replied, "did your mum tell you what set it off?"

"Yeah," Bella replied hesitantly, "didn't Mildred mess up your entrance potion?"

"She did," Ethel confirmed, not feeling any of the anger than she had felt for a long time at the reminder, though during her early years at Cackles, one mention would have been more than enough to set off her temper. "But truthfully after a while I stopped caring about that. I had several reasons for the so-called 'feud' with Mildred Hubble, as Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom deemed it," she made a face at the mention of the two teachers, remembering all the times they had tried to step in and stop the fighting between herself and Mildred, only for them to blow it completely though in truth they had done nothing to mitigate it, "one of them was because she had a loving mother while my own mother wouldn't give me the time of day."

Bella snorted. She couldn't help it, and Ethel turned to face her questioningly. Bella sighed. "She's still like that, always talking about the pride of the family and yet she keeps putting pressure on me while she refuses to really speak to my siblings."

Ethel shook her head while her mind went back to that distant ancestor of hers who had claimed her mother had never appreciated her and her talents and how they had become estranged in later life. Ethel had put a lot of work into trying to make Ursula Hallow appreciate her talents and her abilities as as witch, and how she had even tried to emulate her mother in personality although it had resulted in a lot of grief, especially when she had tricked Esmerelda into handing her powers over to Agatha on a plate.

Somehow the notion of her mother not changing her ways didn't give her much hope for the future if she ever found a way out of here with Mildred and the girls. A part of Ethel wanted to learn how her parents had taken her disappearance, but she decided against it.

"That was only one of my reasons," she admitted, "but I had others. But when we came here, I had to learn to grow up. I had a horrible wake up call when I went off in a temper tantrum, ignoring or forgetting the dangers, and we almost got killed. Mildred saved my life. Later, when we were talking, we cleared the air somewhat."

"What do you mean?" Miranda asked curiously.

Ethel didn't like explaining herself but she knew she would need to clear the air with her niece and her friend. "Mildred and I got talking. We talked about the problems we both had with each other. I learnt a lot more about her from that one conversation than I had ever from our time in the real world. She told me I was lucky to have siblings, and since I was grateful for her help I felt guilty because my sisters and I had shown off our relationship towards each other though I had treated my sisters like dirt beneath my feet."

Ethel looked down as she remembered that conversation while she and Mildred were cowering behind a waterfall, hoping that the sheet of running water would protect them for a bit against the monsters in Jumanji.

" _You have something I have wanted all my life, Ethel - siblings."_ Mildred, her pigtailed hair coming out looking even more tousled than before, said sadly. _"When we get out of here, stop taking them for granted. They love you. You have no idea how lucky you are. I would love to have that kind of relationship."_

" _Y-you're jealous of me?"_ Ethel had asked, her own dirty face and ragged hair showing just how much a toll Jumanji had had on her own appearance.

Mildred had nodded, not even trying to deny it though what had been the point. " _Yeah. I watched how you interacted with Esmerelda, and then later Sybil during first and second year - yeah, you were nasty with them at times, but there were tender moments between you. I never showed my jealousy - what would be the point? Being jealous and throwing my weight around wasn't going to magically summon two brothers or sisters for me to play with, would it? I am an only child in my family. You saw the Family Tree we both did in Mould's class, you know I've only got my mum, my gran, and my aunt. There are only four of us. I had no cousins to play with, no-one my age or younger."_

Ethel had been speechless when presented with the revelations her classmate had dumped on her. But the thing that surprised her the most was just how guilty she now felt towards how she had mocked Mildred during that class. Looking back she could remember there only being three adult faces on the tree branches that Mildred had conjured up.

Four Hubbles in total if you counted Mildred. None of them except Mildred were children. Ethel now felt ashamed that while she'd had Esme and Sybie around, Mildred had no-one except her mother, aunt and grandmother. It was no wonder she and her mum was so close.

Ethel remembered the art classes she'd had in her second year with Mould who had turned out to be a fake, though truthfully she hadn't been surprised since there had been something about the woman which had put her off, and yet she had never been able to truly understand what it was until much later into term though she'd had a lot more on her mind when the Founding Stone had been unearthed, and the possibilities she had available to help redeem herself in Esme's eyes.

The summer after her first year had been horrible, but she would never admit to anybody what it had been like. Neither would her sisters. But when she had seen the Founding Stone and listened to Maud, her mind had been open up to options she would never have considered. Ethel had spent a whole summer trying to work out what she could do to help Esmerelda, and yet all of them had turned out to be lost causes. She had considered simply finding a way to have a prisoner who had his or her magic stripped from them transferred over to Esmerelda, though that would have been a possibility that her parents would have worked on, if they had listened to their daughters.

But they hadn't.

Even Esme hadn't been able to get through to them; her parents had gone off in one of their _**"You've shamed the family and now we have to pick up the pieces"**_ modes when they had learnt what had happened to Esme's magic and Ethel's own part in the whole fiasco, and it had lasted for an entire summer. Even during that year, Ethel had not heard anything, any hint, that her parents were doing anything to help Esme. They were more interested in getting Cackle kicked out of her headmistress post. A part of Ethel could understand the logic, although truthfully she wouldn't have bothered. In any case, she had been surprised by the cold-blooded ruthlessness in her parents' decision.

In truth Ethel hadn't really cared about what her parents had gone through when the Great Wizard, with Mildred's help, had found out what her mother had done. A part of Ethel had felt her mum had deserved the punishment, especially since she hadn't given a thought about what she was doing to her other two daughters who attended the same school.

If Cackle had gone, although Ethel did wonder if there were more advantages of that occurring since a new headmistress might be more neutral to the students and didn't blatantly choose favourites the way HB and Cackle did. In the end, Ethel had gone back to her project with the Founding Stone and discovering a way of transferring some of its power to Esme to make her into a witch again.

But that year… Ethel had been so full of guilt and anger, all directed at herself although many people were to blame. Deep down Ethel hadn't been upset by what her mother had tried to do although her cold-blooded dismissal towards her younger daughters had annoyed her, but since Cackle had bought most of the problems on herself with her blatant favouritism, why should the old witch be surprised she felt no love towards her?

Ethel had lashed out a lot towards her peers that year, but she had been venting her spleen on everyone, and Mildred Hubble had been a favourite target. In art classes she had down her best to bring the brunette down because she knew how much Mildred loved art.

Ethel still didn't understand the point behind the family tree thing. Why would Mould get them doing something so _pointless and wouldn't help in the long run?_ Art quickly became a class where she openly mocked the others on their work, but truthfully she used the classes to think through her plans to refine them, while she tried to think of ways of making sure Esmerelda used the Founding Stone and no-one would be any the wiser, although those who were aware of the fact Esme had lost her powers would ask questions.

But when she had seen how few people Mildred had on her tree, Ethel had been curious about why her classmate had such a small family, but when she had seen the smiles on the Hubbles faces she had let the jealousy she'd always felt cloud her judgement, and she thought no more about the subject.

But now, the most horrible thing was, all of this made so much sense, and why Mildred had been defensive. Anybody else would have been as well, and when Mildred had mocked her she had bottled up the curiosity that had sparked in her mind at the lack of kids, and after a while she had lost interest when she had focused on her projects.

" _I'm so sorry,"_ Ethel had apologised, and with those three simple words her relationship with Mildred changed.

But Mildred had not finished.

" _What are you sorry for? It's not your fault I'm an only child, though it does upset and frustrate me that you hurt both of your sisters, pushing them away the way you have when you should be embracing them both. Why do you do it in the first place?"_

Ethel had been paralysed with shock though she was skirting around a topic she genuinely did not like getting involved with, even with herself or with her sisters. Ordinarily Ethel would bluster or just ignore the subject altogether but in this instance, since they were no longer in their own reality, Ethel didn't see the point in hiding it.

" _I don't want to be hurt,"_ she'd said, " _that's why."_

" _But why? Why would you think you were going to be hurt because you were loving your sister- Oooh!"_ Mildred had asked in confusion before she had started to work out what all this was about. _"It's because of your_ _ **parents,**_ _isn't it?"_

" _Yeah,"_ Ethel had replied.

Ordinarily the subject of family was taboo, but since they'd already broken through those barriers and Ethel had learnt a few things about Mildred that she had never once suspected.

Mildred had shaken her head and looked at her with pity in her eyes. " _Ethel, not to be nasty, but why do you let them walk all over you and ignore you?"_

Ethel had glared at Mildred. _"They're my parents-!"_

" _Parents who ignore you. Parents who send_ _ **holograms**_ _to Parent's evening. Parents who dismiss you,"_ Mildred had finished solemnly. " _You are wasting your time on them Ethel, and life is too short. Why don't you forget your parents, treat them neutrally and focus on your siblings instead? They love you. Surely that means something, right?"_

Ethel closed her eyes and focused on the pact she had made with Mildred after they'd had that talk about her parents. It didn't really make any difference. In truth Ethel had been truly uncomfortable with the whole subject about her parents, and truthfully as she thought about it Ethel could not help but think Mildred had a point.

But the pact between them…

" _We can only survive if we work together,"_ she had told the brunette witch, " _so we're going to make a pact between us, where we will work together forever more."_

" _What about when we get out?"_ Mildred asked, her expression showing how suspicious she was at the time, not that Ethel could really blame her. " _I don't want this to be like with the Friendship Trap Cackle put on us to make us friends, and when we get out we're once more at each others throats."_

" _Oh yeah, good point,"_ Ethel had replied.

It took time but eventually they had found a way to word the pact to what it needed to be without any fear of what would happen to each other. Mildred had advised they should put it all off for a little bit longer despite the advantages of having an early pact made once they had gotten used to being in Jumanji.

Ethel had seen the sense in both arguments. She and Mildred both needed to clear the air a great deal. They also needed to become used to being in one another's company. At the same time they needed to learn more about Jumanji before they could do anything like that. They needed to set up the pact in a place of relative safety, and being on the move the whole time was anything but safe.

" _I, Ethel Hallow, do hereby swear on the Witches Code myself and Mildred Hubble will protect and support each other, so mote it be!"_ Ethel had said to begin the pact.

Mildred had followed suit. " _I, Mildred Hubble, do hereby swear on the Witches Code myself and Ethel Hallow will protect and support each other, so mote it be!"_

That was the pact.

It wasn't anything complex or long-winded with each word containing underlying threats about what could happen if the pact was broken. There were no catches. By that point the two witches had become friends very gradually, and they started to trust one another. Okay, while from one point of view the pair of them didn't need to set up the pact because they both knew and accepted the fact the pair of them needed to survive together, the pact was established to strengthen their new bond.

"That was the start of our pact," Ethel told her young audience, remembering how long it had taken for the pair of them to truly reach the level of trust before they created the pact.

Once they had formed the pact, they became better together. They began to depend on one another for help and support which only strengthened the bond and the pact although both Mildred and Ethel had worked it all out between them both so then if the other was in danger then they wouldn't automatically try to kill themselves getting the other back.

Even Ethel wasn't that suicidal.

She and Mildred had decided that they would support the other, and that was it, and Mildred had given her a shoulder to cry on whenever their situation got to her. And vice versa. "Yes, it took us time; there was a lot of bad blood between us both that we both needed to sort out; ironic, really. Our teachers spent so long trying to stop us fighting like rabid goblins, and yet they never really got us together so we could talk through our problems."

"Would it have even worked?" Bella asked sceptically.

Ethel speared her with a look and she looked away. She wondered how Mildred was doing…

Darkness surrounded her as she slept. Her sleep was so deep she couldn't even feel anything anymore; she had been trying to keep herself awake when she had been picked up after her friends had left after she'd told them to, and she had felt their hands on her body but the sensations had been very slight only she did not know for sure if by that point the sensation had already started before that or if it started when her attackers had come to her body. Indeed she had felt as though her ears had been plugged with small amounts of cotton wool so she hadn't heard them, but by that point she had fallen unconscious.

She felt as though she were floating above a cloud, disconnected from virtually everything. She had no idea if she were dreaming or if the potion or whatever it was in that dart if her blurry memory was accurate enough though even events in her life felt like they had been blurred like an overexposed piece of camera film.

She distantly felt as if her head had been pulled up and supported, and something was trickling down her throat. But she felt so numb she could not be certain.

But slowly she began to be aware of voices nearby, but they were hard to pinpoint at first except that it sounded like many people speaking around her all at once except it changed and the voices became clearer and easier to understand.

One of the first things she noticed when she began to get her awareness back was the scent of that potion; she had no idea how long the stuff lasted after it had been injected, but it still stank. Soon she had enough awareness to remember how to open her eyes and she slowly lifted her eyelids, except it took her a few attempts to get them opened and focus her blurred vision. But when she did focus her vision she found herself in the middle of some kind of hut, or a cave.

It was hard for her to tell.

Wherever she was it wasn't brightly lit up and the walls were so dark it was impossible for her to pick out the details even with the candles lighting different parts of the room, but the people surrounding her quickly drew her attention towards them.

The first thing they reminded her of were Native American Indians, like the ones she and her mum had seen in old movies starring John Wayne, but while they had the right complexions their hair was not banded up with eagle feathers. Instead their hair hung loosely. Mildred's eyes focused on one of them,. Her eyes focused on the leather bag slung around their shoulder, and the wicked looking battle-axe. Mildred had no idea what the the bag contained and she did not want to know, even though she would have to find out if she wanted to escape but she had no idea what was going to happen now, but she would be ready.

But Mildred didn't have time to learn anything from her captors.

They had a surprise in mind for her. "You are awake!" one of them stated in rough voice as though he was not entirely sure about speaking English even though he was able to speak the language well.

Mildred gaped at him in surprise. "You can speak my language," she stated; Van Pelt was one thing, but neither Mildred or Ethel had heard any of the natives of Jumanji speak English before.

"We can," the same man nodded in confirmation.

"Well, it's nice to speak to more people," Mildred smiled, rapidly thinking of ways to take advantage of this; hopefully these people could be persuaded to help her get back to the others and maybe find the other tokens, even though the rest of her said it was not going to work…"But I am in a hurry, and I would like to try to find my friends."

Scornful laughter reached her ears and Mildred knew that her plea hadn't worked although a part of her was saying in a voice that reminded her vividly of Ethel's voice, _I told you so, Mildred Hubble!_ Mildred had no problem killing the negative waves, she had needed to find out for herself if she could leave after all.

"No. You are not going to leave," the same man who was speaking to her said.

Mildred licked her lips; there was something about his manner she did not like. "What are you going to do?" she asked, wondering if she had stumbled onto another bunch of savages who had a fetish for lopping off heads although she couldn't see any sign of that…

The man walked over to her softly and gently rested a hand on her belly. "You will make a wonderful wife," he said.

Mildred reared back in horror. The people in the room or whatever it was laughed raucously at her reaction and the man who'd been speaking with her moved to the side. And for the first time Mildred saw what he had been standing with his back to during the conversation. When she stopped it, the thoughts of what would happen to her faded.

Perched on what looked like a table or the centrepiece for a shrine though Mildred genuinely did not care about the details now she had seen it with her own two eyes was a huge amethyst cut into the shape of an elephant's head with the trunk raised high as though calling out. Mildred studied it closely while she looked around to get an idea of the layout of where they were, already preparing plans to escape and take the jewel with her.

The man whom Mildred had took to be the chief of this tribe raised a hand. Immediately the others went quiet, waiting for their leader to say his next part.

"You will join the others whom we have captured. Soon you will be married off to four of our warriors," he added, shocking Mildred while at the same time the brunette witch wondered how well that would work out. "You will become part of our tribe. You will tend to the sick and feed our warriors when they go off on hunts, and you will tend to any and all children that your body bears."

Mildred felt sick. They were going to turn her into a brood mare. It didn't surprise her that much considering she had come across a few tribes and different groups out there who captured women from other tribes to keep themselves going and strong. More than once Mildred and Ethel had both been captured by those groups, so she shouldn't have been too surprised it was happening again.

But what terrified her the most was the image of her 'husband' raping her constantly until she was pregnant, again and again.

Mildred resolved to find a way to escape and to come back to this room and take the jewelled elephants head and get out of here before it happened.

She had no choice.


	22. Chapter 22

The Curse of Jumanji.

Mildred allowed herself to be led quietly out of the massive room, only to discover it was actually a very large tent made from a thick material decorated with tribal symbols. The shift from near pitch-black darkness to bright sunshine made Mildred recoil and even her guards seemed to agree with her as they gave her a few seconds to let her eyes adjust, but they were still unsympathetic towards her new plight so it only went so far.

The brunette witch let her captors lead her away so she could get an idea of what the settlement was like.

It didn't come as much of a surprise to Mildred who had seen dozens of them over the years. No matter where you went in Jumanji, all of the native tribes tended to build their settlements or villages in much the same lines, only this place had tents rather than huts. All of the tents were smaller except for two really big ones, but they were all made from the same heavy-looking material which looked like leather. Everything about the place said the place was temporary. The tribe could leave at any time.

Mildred wasn't surprised by that either. She and Ethel had often seen the tribes migrating to all points of the compass where they would settle down again miles and miles away from where they had once lived. Mildred knew they tended to leave whenever hunting became either too dangerous or non-existent because the animals were becoming scarce, but whatever the reasons were Mildred and Ethel had always The settlement was built in a circle with the various huts arranged around the two of the largest tents, and while the smaller tents were small in comparison to the larger tents they were large enough for a reasonable number of people to live in.

Once Mildred's eyes had adapted to the sudden glare of the sun above them, she used the time to try to create a mental map of the camp and its surroundings, noticing the towering trees surrounding the cap and the ones growing inside the camp itself. Mildred studied it all, knowing it would be vital for when it came to her escape.

She noticed the camp was very close to a small stream of water and Mildred spotted an open larder where the hunters and gatherers of the tribe had killed their game and displayed them proudly for the entire tribe to see.

The larger was just basically a frame protected by another tent only this one was made out of nets where ugly looking spines or thorns stuck out, clearly meant to keep out any birds which could go for the meat. As Mildred was led away, she studied every inch of the camp she could see as she was led away from the large tent she had just been inside, guessing the chief of the tribe and his family lived in the second large tent though truthfully Mildred couldn't bring it within herself to care where the chief lived.

As she walked through the village slowly, her eyes scanning every single little street where the different tents were arranged, Mildred caught sight of the people who lived in the tribe, and she caught sight of a few women who were part of the tribe but were clearly not originally part of it. Mildred caught sight of them, seeing that they looked resigned for the most part of being here.

But as she watched them they watched her in turn, seeing the way she was being led away. That was made even clear when she spotted three heavily pregnant women looking at her silently. All three of them had that same resigned look on their face, broken after who knew how long they had been here, and she knew they were her future.

There were a few other pregnant women in the camp. A few of them were pregnant while tending to their children or some of their chores in this camp, but others were cradling babies in their arms while wearing rough-looking clothes gifted to them by the tribe. All of them had were openly staring silently at Mildred, and the brunette was surprised that a few of those women were giving her looks of sympathy, knowing already what was going to happen to her.

 _Unless I escape,_ Mildred thought to herself as she let herself be led into another tent, but she dropped to the ground suddenly.

One of the men holding onto her growled in frustration and dragged her along impatiently. The other man shared the impatience, but he was a lot calmer than his friend. He waited while Mildred was picked up by his friend.

"Okay, I'm getting up," Mildred protested loudly, earning her a smack to the head from her irate handler. While she was dazed by the hit, Mildred was sure she heard the second man chide his friend, but she didn't care. She was still dazed when she felt herself being dragged into another tent. She came to her senses as she felt her hands being tied up to a long, thick vine which was being used as a rope. She winced as she felt the coarse vine cut into her skin, but otherwise, she didn't react as she was being tied up.

The two men left the tent, laughing but she put them out of her mind before she glanced up at her closed left hand. The sharp stone was glinting dully in the dim lighting of the tent she was in.

* * *

"How do you think Mildred is?" Miranda whispered to Ethel as they continued to rest at the waterfall.

Ethel was busily looking around the landscape for any sign of danger. Inwardly she just wished Miranda would shut up. She had pestering Ethel for the last couple of hours. She was all " _when are we leaving?"_ or " _do you think we will find the tokens?"_

Deep down Ethel had no real idea how she and her younger charges were going to find the tokens, but she was too worried about Mildred to actually care about finding a way out of Jumanji. But Ethel knew that it should be her first priority, but she had to admit to herself that after spending thirty years with Mildred around, and two years of putting up with the brunette at Cackles Academy…she was just used to having her around.

"Knowing Mildred she's trying to find a way to escape from whoever captured her," she murmured when she focused on the questions, but she didn't take her eyes off of the jungle. She was trying desperately to focus on other matters, which was one of the reasons why she had let Miranda go on with her questions for so long, but she had quickly worked out it was a bad idea since the girl had a terrible habit of going on and on.

Even worse she was going on about Mildred, and more than once Ethel had needed to stop herself from losing her temper with the girl because the questions were making her reflect on her own inability to help Mildred. Yeah, Mildred had told her to go on without her, to leave her behind, but Mildred and Ethel had a bond now. They had moved on from their schoolgirl days. They had been forced to grow up.

And yet Miranda's questions had a strange way of making her feel awful, which was the last thing she needed right now because she did need to focus on the other tokens and hopefully getting them out of this hell.

"But can she?" Miranda pressed, looking at the older witch hesitantly. "I mean, won't magic not work around whoever captured her…?"

"Miranda, shut up!" Ethel finally snapped, glaring at the younger witch furiously and making Miranda back off in fright. "Just shut up! Mildred is more than capable of taking care of herself!"

"Auntie Ethel!" Bella chided, glaring at her aunt in return, but Ethel wasn't falling for it. She was too angry and annoyed with

With that, she jumped to her feet and she stormed over to the edge of the ledge they were on. Bella followed her and when Ethel became aware of her niece's presence, she noticed right away Bella's expression. She did not look happy. Too bad.

"You didn't have to talk to her like that!" Bella snapped.

Ethel turned away, ignoring her niece. She was already starting to calm down and reflect on everything that Miranda had just said but she was just so frustrated. "I am already kicking myself for not being able to help Mildred," she ground out. "I don't need some _eleven-year-old kid_ asking questions about someone whom she doesn't even know."

And she was. She had almost gone mad when Mildred had been taken. It didn't help she and Mildred had no idea about the people living in this part of Jumanji, though it hadn't helped they'd learnt the hard way it was a better idea to stay as far from the natives of this place since they had arrived.

"Mildred is tough," Ethel admitted, knowing that thirty-two years ago she would never have said that to anyone, not even herself. "She can take care of herself, and besides…this isn't the first time we've been separated for long periods, though we always tried to avoid it happening."

Bella's anger abated slightly as she realised her aunt was calming down and she was listening to what Ethel was saying. "How many times were you separated?" she couldn't help but ask.

Ethel sighed as the logical question entered her mind. "Too many times to count," she admitted, glancing over at Bella and noticing out of her peripheral vision Miranda was cautiously walking over, but the elder Hallow didn't care though if the younger witch said anything then she would lose it. "One of the things you've got to remember and keep in mind, back then, me and Mildred were still sometimes at each other's throats. Well," she corrected herself with a dark chuckle as she remembered all those times she had bullied Mildred at Cackles simply because she had an awful life and had problems admitting it to anyone on top of her own beliefs about the brunette which had been settled over the years, "when we arrived, lets just say we didn't become friends overnight; it took time - one of the worst things I did when we arrived was when I stormed off in a temper tantrum, and I nearly got myself and Mildred killed, though we both barely managed to get away with only a few injuries. But the worst time…."

She paused for breath, looking to the two girls as if she were doing her level best to avoid being physically ill. Finally, she went on, speaking slowly as if it was a struggle to admit it to anyone else. "But the worst time… was when I thought she had been killed."

Bella gasped while Miranda looked at her in shock. "How-?" Miranda asked.

"Van Pelt," Ethel hissed like an angry cat. "He came up with an elaborate little trap to get us both. He attacked us and he shot at us, drove us apart. Finally, I heard a scream from Mildred, and then silence after Van Pelt yelled in triumph. I only just managed to get away without him trying to kill me, but I hid nearby. I waited for…Merlin knows how long, and then I went back to see if I could find Mildred's body but I couldn't. It was already gone. After that Van Pelt went all out. He hunted me down like an animal, he used his dogs to try to flush me out of my hiding places when I tried to put some distances between us. Anyway, I decided I'd had enough one day, so I went to his place while he was out hunting me down."

Ethel went silent for a moment while she was clearly lost in some truly dark memories while the younger witches watched her.

"What were you going to do?" Bella asked, waving Miranda to silence when she saw that her friend was going to open her own mouth. The last thing she wanted was to have her aunt lose her temper again. They needed her aunt to be in a good place mentally, instead of in a terrible mood.

Ethel lifted her head and speared the younger witches with a look. "I was going to burn his compound down with us inside it," she confessed darkly as she remembered those days where everything was hopeless at the time. "He had been hunting me for so long, and since my magic didn't work, and with Mildred gone… I had no way of getting out of the game. I decided I was just going to give up," she admitted as she reflected on her mood at the time. "But when I got there, guess what I found?"

"Mildred," Miranda whispered.

Ethel nodded. "Van Pelt had captured her. He had wanted to use her as bait, or something like that. Truthfully I never really found out what he planned to do with her, but either way, it makes no difference now. I managed to get her out, but we had a nightmare escaping his compound - long story, but let me tell you, we both got out," she went on, hoping they didn't ask her for details about their escape. "Come on," she went on, "I think we've been here long enough. Hopefully, along the way we'll find a clue to where the other tokens are."

* * *

Unknown to Ethel at the time one of the tokens the witches were looking for in the hope of finding a way out of Jumanji was actually within easy reach of Mildred. The only problem was Mildred needed to get to it. Dusk was starting to set in when Mildred began sawing through the ropes holding her.

She was just relieved the rope was easy enough to saw through, more or less. She found that although the rope holding her was made of vine, it wasn't completely vine. It was actually made from a grassy hemp laced with vine strings to give it more strength, but with a bit of patience, she was able to saw through it. When she had been certain she was alone and the members of this tribe weren't going to disturb her, she had gotten to work.

Mildred hadn't immediately started working on the ropes the moment she found herself inside the tent. She knew from long experience it was not a good move to try to escape straight away, so she hadn't bothered. But that hadn't stopped her from experimentally testing the sharpness of the stone against the rope when she had first come in, though she'd done it carefully to make sure no-one came in and caught her.

To her relief, the sharp stone was sharp enough to do the job, but she had still held back from using it to saw through right away.

It wouldn't be much of an escape if she tried to escape only to be caught and dragged back; she'd done that once with Ethel, and they had needed to figure out another way to escape. Mildred did not want to do anything like that again when they were trying to escape from Jumanji, and with the elephant trunk so close it was even more important she did this right and she escaped once without getting caught.

She had been stuck in the tent all day watching to see how often her captors came in. She genuinely didn't know if it was because they felt she was secure or not, but they didn't come in as often as they thought, but she didn't care. But it had taken hours and hours for her to realise they were not going to come in, but she was still cautious as she sawed through the ropes.

Mildred winced as she made another cut and glanced upwards, ignoring the pain shooting through her back; this wasn't the best posture to saw through ropes and hope to make a break for it. But she had no choice as she sawed through the rope holding her, ignoring the pain though she wondered idly if she had pulled a muscle, but at this point she didn't care; she would gladly dislocate her legs if it meant getting out of here, though she chuckled under her breath at the thought of dislocating a leg and trying to get out of here.

Mildred hacked away at the rope for what seemed like an hour. She stopped a few times to test the strength of the rope so she could get some idea of just how much more she needed to slice away at it before she was finally free. She paused right now, and she was relieved when she felt the rope now feeling much less tight than before, and she glanced up at it to see if her hands could slip through, but to her frustration, she found the rope still needed a bit of work.

Oh well, back to the sawing.

As she continued to saw through the rope, Mildred went over her plan again while she paid attention to the sounds outside of the tent. So far no-one seemed concerned about leaving her on her own for long periods, but she knew someone could stroll in on impulse.

Mildred decided to just continue sawing and pray no-one came in, though she had no idea what would happen if someone came in and discovered the rope was looser than it should have been.

Her plan wasn't much of one as she considered it. In fact, it was full of so many holes, it was a wonder it didn't sink quicker than the Titanic. Her idea was to essentially saw through the rope, which she was doing right now and she could feel the tightness lessen with each saw, so she didn't have long which meant she would need to think through the plan well enough, to make it work out.

When she had been led through the village, Mildred had seen just how many tents were close to the one she was currently being held in and how many were between her and the elephant's trunk and freedom.

She wished her tent and the one with the trunk inside were close to the jungle, so she could slip out through an opening in the side of the tent or through a small tunnel, or something like that though it would probably take forever to dig two tunnels leading out of the tent the tribe had tied her into, and the one the trunk was inside.

That way no-one would be able to see what she was doing and she could be making a new broomstick before anyone realised what was happening.

But no. The chief's tent and the one adjacent to it were in the _centre_ of the village, and if she wanted to get there somehow, she would need to find a way of sneaking over to the tent.

In any case, the night was falling, so she would have an advantage there, though how much of one she would have, Mildred couldn't say.

Mildred closed her eyes for a moment to think of a solution. But she couldn't find any. Not only would she saw through the rope, but what then? She had no idea what was on the other side of the tent opposite the opening, but she would find out because she didn't want to go through the main opening unless she needed too.

But as she thought about it, Mildred knew she would likely have to use magic in order to make her escape easier. The only problem was should she risk it, especially if her theories about Jumanji being alive were correct? In any case, even if she did use magic how would she use it here? She had no intention of using magic against these people, she knew from long experience it would not work out in the long run, and it would just make everything go pear-shaped anyway, so there was no point.

On the other hand, she could simply use a spell to try to slip out unnoticed?

She discounted that instantly, knowing it would do no good as she thought about it. Even if she could cast the spell, which she could, thanks to Ethel's long and patient teachings, she had no idea if it would work in this part of Jumanji. Everything just felt different here, and Mildred did not want to push her luck.

She didn't even want to know what would happen if she failed here.

As she ground her teeth together in frustration because her ideas were being shot down faster than she thought through them, she came to realise she was overcomplicating her ideas.

What was the simplest thing she could do to distract the village?

That was when she realised, and a smile crossed her face though it was marred with worry. But at the same time, she had to accept it wasn't as if she didn't have a choice in the matter. Her smile became genuine when she felt the rope finally snap in half, she was free at last. After rubbing her wrists for a second, Mildred walked slowly over to the opening and looked out through a small gap.

Only one man was standing out there, she could see his legs and tall form. Mildred wondered for a second how long he had been out there, but she decided it didn't make any difference to her. At the same time, she watched the village. The fires were still burning, but it looked as though the entire tribe, barring a few people who looked like warriors tasked with protecting the village from attack, were on guard duty. It was dark outside, and although she couldn't see the whole of the village, the streets looked deserted.

Mildred bit her lip in thought, and she walked away to the other side of the tent. She held up her hand and concentrated before a large, solid jungle knife appeared in her hand. She opened her eyes and smiled down at the weapon for a moment, and she got to work on cutting a hole through the bottom of the tent she was in. She worked quickly, knowing the conjured knife would soon vanish much like the trampoline.

It didn't take her long to cut open a small slit through the tent large enough for her to peer out of, and when she looked out she saw the tent she was in was close to a small cluster of tents, and as she looked she saw the cluster had everything she needed which was plenty of space to hide. She looked down at her knife, and she began widening the hole she'd just made to make it large enough for her to go through. When she was out, she took a deep breath of relief, but it was tempered.

Mildred knew she had a long way to go before she was properly free.

She cast a look around, and she found herself looking down at both her knife and a fire that was slowly dying down. The knife was starting to lose it's outline already, meaning whatever had happened to the trampoline was now happening to the knife, but when she saw the smouldering wood only a few feet away from her, she decided the knife was superfluous.

She just dropped it on and the ground and crawled over to the fire. There were two tents immediately shielding her from the view of the rest of the street, so reaching it was easy. After taking a look around the last tent, Mildred spotted a warrior walking around with an alert if bored expression on his face - he had clearly been awake for a long time, and although he was trying to be alert he was too tired to really pay any attention.

Mildred had no intention of tipping him off; she had a feeling that, like Hardbroom, this warrior and those in the village like him, would be on her like a ton of bricks. She waited for a few minutes before she was positive he wasn't there anymore, and she crept forward while she ripped out some fresh weeds and grass near one of the tents and grabbed a fairly sturdy clump of wood she found near the tent which reminded her of a policeman's truncheon. It was a great find, better than a few burning cinders.

Mildred tied the weeds and the grasses to the stump and remembering an old trick she had picked up from her mother (she _refused to_ pay any more attention to those memories) she snipped off a small amount of her matted hair and tied it to the clump. When it was all tied properly and securely, Mildred stuck the head into the fire and waited for it to catch fire. When it did she blew on it gently to encourage the flames. She smiled when it started to glow before she stuck the torch underneath one of the tents before she moved onto the next.

* * *

On the other side of the jungle, in a tree that definitely brought back bad memories, Miranda looked out of the canopy at the towering form of the peak they needed to reach to escape. They had been travelling all day, heading towards the enormous mountain before night had begun to fall. So far the expected behaviour of the homemade broomsticks, which usually failed a few hours after being used as brooms had not yet happened, but in the waning hours of the daylight they had left, the witches had collected the bits needed to make new brooms while at the same time they made spares.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow. The last thing any of the witches wanted was to fly for a long time, and then have the brooms fall apart from underneath.

But Miranda wasn't thinking about that.

She had other things on her mind. While they had been travelling across the jungle, Ethel hadn't seemed to be in much of a hurry to find the last two tokens, though Miranda guessed the elder Hallow had her reasons.

In fact, Miranda could pretty much guess what they were.

Ethel simply didn't know where to look. The Leopard's head had been a stroke of luck, and even if they could try to find the last two tokens to take them all the way up to the summit, how were they to know there wouldn't be more hurdles?

Actually she did know why that was.

Ethel knew it would take them forever, so what would be the point? But as she looked up at the peak, framed by the moonlight, though Miranda was unsure if it was beckoning her and the others to reach it or not. Or was it just taunting them with its presence, saying _Here I am - come to the top… only you won't get out of here?_ Miranda hoped not. She remembered the rules of the game from what she had read briefly before she and Bella had been whisked into Jumanji, this terrible place where danger and death seemed to lurk everywhere they looked.

Mildred herself had been fed up with the constant hurdles, but Miranda guessed after thirty years of being trapped in this place, she shouldn't be too surprised.

Thinking of Mildred made Miranda close her eyes in regret over what she had done in regards to Ethel. She could very well understand she had driven the elder Hallow witch mad with all her questions, although Ethel had calmed down enough and said Mildred was tough and resourceful, but yet she still didn't know what the brunette witch was like, really. They hadn't really interacted much with each other, learnt what the other was like, and that sort of thing.

Everything had gone by so fast, and Miranda and Mildred had been trying to survive here. But as she looked up at the peak, she wondered if tomorrow, they would finally leave Jumanji.

She hoped so. She also hoped when they got out here, they could destroy the game that had trapped so many people here in the past.

"It seems surreal, doesn't it?" Ethel's voice broke through whatever Miranda was thinking, though in truth the younger witch wasn't really thinking of anything; it was late, she was tired, and yet her mind was going over everything too fast for her to focus.

Miranda turned to look at Ethel, and her confusion must have shown because Ethel smiled at her softly while the elder witch walked over and stood next to Miranda. Ethel was looking up at the peak. "Thirty years ago, Mildred Hubble and I found ourselves here, and yet…tomorrow," she paused over the word as if it was painful for her to complete the thought behind her sentence, "tomorrow, or the day after, we might finally be going home."

"Do you think we'll find the tokens?" Miranda whispered, voicing the thought which had been on her mind for the last few hours.

Ethel's nose twitched at the question. None of them had really bothered to try looking for the tokens - either the Tiger's eye or the Elephants' trunk. They simply didn't know where to look for either of them, and in any case, if they did try to look everywhere they could spend another thirty years trapped here, and they didn't want to do that.

Besides, they had found the Leopard's head, but that was just by chance.

"I hope so," she said finally. "I also hope we get there in time and get out of here."

Miranda nodded.

"Come on," Ethel gently guided her back to the trunk of the tree where Bella was already asleep. "We've got a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, and we need our sleep."

Miranda agreed with her, but she couldn't hope but wonder to herself if sleep was even remotely possible. But as she settled down and mad herself as comfortable as she could get, which was difficult enough since her back was against a solid tree trunk which wouldn't do wonders for her back, Miranda felt rather than heard Ethel cast a spell over herself.

When she felt her eyelids becoming heavy as the sleeping spell took hold of her mind, Miranda, at last, surrendered to the delights of sleep.

* * *

The village was on fire. The natives of the village were rushing about in a panic, screaming whenever the flames grew out of control, though some of them were trying to dowse out the fires. None of the tribe knew how it had happened, but many of the tents were being set alight, and many of the grasses they had set their camp on were also going up in flames, and many bushes were being set alight to add to the chaos. In the meantime, Mildred was doing her best to spread the fire throughout the village to further distract the tribe from finding her.

The number of fires she was creating was sending up a large amount of flame and smoke into the air, which made moving through the village easier for her, though she continued to use the backs of the tents while she went along setting tent after tent alight. Through the gaps, she could see the natives rushing back and forth trying to dowse out the flames, but there were now so many fires it was virtually impossible for them to keep up.

Mildred was not making it easier for them.

Once one part of the village was on fire, she went to another part, keeping out of the way while the rest of the tribe ran around trying to slow down the spread and put the flames out. Mildred moved slowly and carefully around the village, keeping out of sight of the tribe though she wasn't too bothered since she had set fire to dozens of tents and bits of vegetation the tribe had moved into. When she finally arrived at the next part of the village, Mildred gently slid the burning torch underneath the hems of a few of the tents and waited for a moment before he moved on quickly to the next - just because the rest of the tribe were busy screaming their heads off did not mean she wanted to be found hanging around waiting to be caught.

Mildred slid the torch underneath another tent, mentally praying she was not harming any children, but she pushed that out of her mind as she continued her work.

She needed to set a large part of the village on fire. The more fires she spread, the easier it would be to keep the tribe busy….

It seemed to take forever for her to reach the tents where the chief lived and the one the elephant's trunk was kept in, and as she walked through the village she came across something that almost made her laugh.

It was a broomstick, or at least it was the tribes' version of a broomstick. The handle and the length of it were right enough, but the end of it ended in what looked like a clawed hand or a paw. Mildred went on her way towards the broomstick, setting more and more of the tents alight with the torch but she threw it away when she felt she had set up enough fires. She grabbed it, delighted she now had a way out, but she gathered a few reeds and grasses

It took her a while to get to the tents, though she had a hard time at first trying to work out which tent was which in this light.

Mildred was now starting to wish she hadn't thrown the torch away. If she'd still had it then she could have set one of the tents alight and then watched to see if the chief's family ran out in panic. She closed her eyes and withheld the urge to sigh in frustration. She walked around the tents, trying to see which one was which. She had _seen them_ hours ago, she had observed all the details with her artists' eyes. She had thought it all out, even if she had gone around the village to draw as many of the tribe away from both tents so she could get access to them, she had been _so sure_ she would get the right one.

But she had not counted on the smoke, fire, and the night to make it impossible for her to tell the tents apart.

Mildred blew out a breath as she tried to work out which one was which while she held onto the handle of the broom she'd just stolen and improved while at the same time she tried to think of a way she could get through this without being seen or caught.

In the end, she shrugged her shoulders, realising there was nothing else for it; she would just have to check both of them. Mildred rubbed her eyes in annoyance, knowing if any of the chief's family was still inside the family tent and they saw her, and they would see her, they would either raise the alarm and she would be caught out before she could grab the trunk and get out alive.

If they caught her, she would not be able to escape again and take the elephants' trunk with her.

She had caused all of the chaos in the village for this reason, to distract everyone's attention so she could get the jewel out of here without being seen or caught out.

Now it looked like it was not going to happen.

Mildred bit her lip as she continued to think through this crazy plan before she decided to keep the broomstick to hand for a quick getaway. Her mind raced as she considered what more she could do, but she also thought about the fact…she might need to escape now, and come back at a different time.

No, that was not a good idea.

Even if she failed to get the trunk now and escape at the same time, she doubted she would be able to find a time to return to the camp to get the trunk. Knowing her luck they would have boosted their security after she had burnt half of the village down.

And if they caught her…

She knew if Ethel were here, or even Miss Hardbroom or the Great Wizard, they would have come up with a better idea. But she had nothing.

Mildred closed her eyes for a second to exorcise the idea and burn it right out of her mind, knowing it was not going to help her. She was about to step out and walk, or fly, she didn't care which, to the first of the tents when she ducked out of sight when a figure came rushing out of the clouds of smoke. She could hear the cries in the distance as the villagers tried to dowse out the flames. She had no idea how many of the tent fires had been put out by now, but she hoped with the number of them out, there would be a bit more time.

Mildred needed a moment to pick out the features of the villager who'd appeared by the tent and when she did she wondered if the game was deliberately helping her or not because she didn't believe this was an act of God. She watched him carefully while he reached one of the tents and called out something in his language. A moment later a panicked looking woman appeared, and Mildred grinned as she realised who this was.

It was the chief.

And the woman must be a member of his family.

She watched him carefully as he spoke to a woman who had poked her head out of the tent. They exchanged some serious words while he urged them back inside the tent, and he rushed back towards the fire.

Mildred took a deep breath and she ran straight for the other large tent, pausing on the threshold and she walked inside after she conjured a ball of magical light in her hand and stepped cautiously inside.

The tent was thankfully empty and after casting a quick look around the tent's interior which put her in mind of a very primitive church, she turned to the trunk and she lifted it up and pulled off its pedestal, wincing slightly at the weight.

"You are really doing that?"

Mildred jumped in shock when she swung around and she found the chief standing there. He didn't look surprised to see her. "I have to," Mildred replied. "When did you realise I'd gotten out?"

"That no matter," the chief waved a hand in a dismissive way.

Mildred raised a brow, pushing aside her surprise that some parts of the English language escaped this man's knowledge but she decided it wasn't important. "No I guess not," she replied.

She thrust her hand holding the ball of light, shoving more of her magic into the ball to make it so bright the chief, unprepared for the glare, cried out in shock.

That was all she needed.

Mildred mounted the broomstick and, ignoring the drain on her magic, she brightened the glare and pushed the chief out of her way before she shot into the sky clasping the weight of the elephants trunk in her arm while resting it on her knee to support it as she flew away from the village, shooting through the air like a jet or a rocket before she slowed herself down and began flying at a more leisurely pace through the air. Mildred took a deep breath as she flew through the air, ignoring the fatigue she was feeling as she did. Mildred knew she was making a mistake flying in the jungle. It was night and she was exhausted after expending so much of her magic in a place that _drained_ magic.

Talk about not being a good combination. Still, she had to try to reach the peak or at least fly until daybreak. Once there she could get something to eat and drink, and maybe she would get a bit of a rest before she pushed on.

Mildred mentally forced the broomstick to slow down a notch before she tried to get as comfortable as she could. The elephant's trunk head was quite a hefty jewel. It was taking a lot of Mildred's strength to keep it from falling out of her grasp where it would disappear down below.

She looked ahead and saw the massive chunk of sharpened rock which was the peak.

 _Please say I get there,_ she mentally.

* * *

She had finally landed on the ledge on a waterfall which was small and fairly narrow for any of the more agile of Jumanji's menagerie to reach her. When she landed and made sure in a few moments of clear thought, she collapsed on the ground, exhausted.

Oh, she hated Jumanji.

As she had flown away from the village after she had burnt half of it to the ground and stolen the elephant's trunk right from that prayer tent, or whatever it was bloody well called, Mildred had flown for hours on the broomstick. The problem with broomstick flying was witches and wizards if what she had seen of the Great Wizard's flying skills, was witches tended to sit astride the brooms and if you had something heavy it was very hard to balance it out.

More than once Mildred had almost dropped the elephants head. It also did not help she had very nearly fallen asleep, only to remember where she was and what she was doing.

But she had kept flying, right through dawn. As she flew above the trees, she tried to keep on the lookout for any sign of Ethel and the others when the new day began, but she hadn't seen anything. She had to admit she was still too far from the peak to be able to see people flying anywhere.

Finally, she had arrived at this waterfall and she very gratefully flew around looking for a place where she could land, rest, and not be bothered by any of the wildlife at the same time. It had taken her some doing, but she had managed to find this ledge. Even better it was far from any of the animals nearby in the first place.

Mildred forced herself up and walked over to the gushing water and with some effort managed to wash her face and she sighed in pleasure as the cold water touched her face. Delighted by the sensation, Mildred splashed herself again and again, and then she managed to get some water to drink. She moaned in delight when she felt the cold water trickling down her face; the tribe who'd wanted to knock her up and turn her into a broodmare hadn't bothered to give her anything to eat or drink, and she was very thirsty and hungry. The flight hadn't helped but she'd spent the last few hours - oh, how she wished she had some way of telling the time that was reliable - flying and pushing aside the effects of magical exhaustion out of the way.

The water helped a little bit to replenish her strength.

She looked around the ledge and made a face. It was narrow, too high up and out of reach, but she was still exposed. She looked around for a place where she could, finally, get some peace. But she saw nothing. There was no way of getting past the waterfall without falling down to an icy death.

Mildred blew out a breath, and she walked over to the rock and tried to make herself as comfortable as she could. A few more minutes and she was asleep.


	23. Chapter 23

The Curse of Jumanji.

"And….rest," Ethel ordered when she landed on the top of yet another ledge on the peak while she took a deep breath while Miranda and Bella both slowly ascended on their own lashed up broomsticks. Miranda had only just planted her feet on the ground and then jumped in fright when a loud caw of a bird echoed through the air.

Ethel had to bite her tongue lightly not to laugh out loud at the reactions of both her niece and Miranda, and she looked upwards to pretend to be studying the height of the peak and seeing just how far they had to go now just to avoid the suspicious look Miranda was sending her, and the open glare of her niece. Ethel wasn't particularly bothered about how Bella or Miranda felt about her laughing her head off, or feeling amusement; at this point they could all do with a laugh especially after what had happened, though she knew that while she had gotten better as a person and had grown more mature, a part of her would still always be amused by the problems faced by others. Ethel looked upwards to see for herself just how far they needed to go now. All humour left Ethel as she let out a long-drawn-out sigh. It was just as she thought, really, though she had hoped they would be getting a break; they still had too far to go to reach the top of the peak.

The three witches had hit a stumbling block quite quickly as they had flown upwards. As Mildred had discovered, the brooms became unstable very quickly when they reached a certain height. The trio had discovered that quite quickly as well, but they had discovered that if they flew upwards and landed on top of a ledge then they could both rest themselves and then wait a few minutes before flying upwards. It seemed to work even if it wasn't the most ideal solution they had available. But the problem was they often found ledges which were so narrow they had to have their backs to the wall just so they couldn't fall to their deaths.

It was a nightmarish ascent and all three of them wanted it to end, and it was made worse because they needed to keep very close to the rock face and looking upwards, all they could see was yet more rock. At the same time Ethel was trying to think of two problems quietly in the back of her mind; Mildred and the last two tokens. Ethel hoped Mildred was able to escape from whoever had captured her, though truthfully she didn't doubt her friend would be able to handle it.

Mildred wasn't stupid, and in any case, she had been finding ways of getting out of trouble long before they'd both found their way here. Mildred knew precisely where they would be heading and she would be following, and Ethel doubted very much her friend would try to find any of the tokens without a lead of where any of them were in the jungle. Mildred wasn't stupid. This part of Jumanji was vast, and they had found the Leopard's head by chance without any clues about where the other two were hidden.

 _That is unless the game is throwing us a few cauldrons and giving us a chance,_ Ethel thought to herself. She checked herself and realised she had fully accepted, in her mind at least, that the game of Jumanji was alive like Mildred said. She hadn't wanted to believe it, at least not at first. But now she had fully accepted it now she could logically see the wee just so many coincidences around what was happening around them, and if she were honest she was getting frustrated by it all.

"How much higher do you think we need to go now?" Miranda asked, and Ethel came out of her thoughts to look at the younger witch.

"I don't know," she sighed before she looked up again. At this angle, it was virtually impossible for her to see anything further, but she hoped they were near the top. They had made two new sets of broomsticks, but fortunately, they hadn't needed to change them over and Ethel hadn't seen much point in doing so since they hadn't felt the familiar tell-tale signs yet. "Hopefully, we're closer to the top," she went on, doing her best to sound optimistic though she had a terrible feeling she was failing, though she could see the equally hopeful faces of her niece and Miranda looking back at her.

"How long do you want to wait here?" Bella asked.

Ethel looked around the ledge for a moment and saw it was much wider and larger than the last one they had landed on and she reached her decision. "We can stay for a little bit longer," she told them what she had decided, "give our legs a bit of a stretch after spending so long flying upwards."

"Oh, yes please!" Miranda gasped out while Bella turned and looked out at the wide expanse of the jungle and she gaped in awe; while Jumanji was a terrifying place, it was still beautiful in a way…

"Bella," Ethel called and Bella turned and walked over to where her aunt was. Ethel was sprawled out on the ground with her back to the wall of the cliff while Miranda was walking around stretching, and wincing as she did. Bella knew how her friend felt; with the constraints of the Cackles' uniform to contend with even if their experiences had made them tatty and worn, both girls had moments where they felt as if their uniforms would have been better off as straitjackets.

Bella walked over to her aunt and sat down next to her and together they both looked out over the horizon. "What do you think we'll find when we get to the top?" she asked her aunt although she knew without a doubt Ethel didn't know.

"I don't know. Hopefully, there's something there that will help us find the other two tokens," Ethel replied, looking at her niece with some annoyance since Bella _already knew_ she didn't have the answer and didn't pretend she did, but it was tempered by the fact Bella was just asking to seek reassurance. "But truthfully…I just hope," Ethel paused as she wondered if her words would only make the game spite them again, but she paused in case it did happen and they were stuck here forever.

"What?" Bella asked, looking at her curiously.

"I don't know," Ethel said, at last, determined not to say a word in case her worst fears were confirmed and she hoped Bella hadn't inherited the same curiosity streak off of Ethel through Esmerelda. If she had then Ethel may as well announce to the whole game about her fears and it would come true in one go. "But I just hope we get through this."

"We will," Bella replied with the childhood certainty Ethel had never really felt for herself even if she had done things she had been so _certain_ everything she did would finally win her parents' affection (she _refused_ to think about the mess she had caused when she had tricked her own sister into handing over her own magic to Agatha; all that mess had done was cause her problems and while it had been nice wearing the Head-girl belt she had felt had been denied her over the year she had realised what she had done to her own sister was cause her pain in her own personal quest to make her mother look at her like she was a daughter). "We will get through this."

Ethel was just opening her mouth to tell Bella not to get her hopes up, but then she saw her the look on her niece's face and nodded. "Yeah," she replied, hoping she wasn't making a liar out of herself and her niece.

* * *

On her own broomstick, Mildred was flying as quickly as she could. She had scrapped the broomstick, or rather the _sorry excuse_ of a broomstick, she had stolen from the tribe who had tried to turn her into a broodmare and had made a couple of new ones for luck since she had no desire to fly up the peak that was towering over her only to fall to her death. All that time she was trying to hold onto the elephant jewel in her lap which was held in a kind of vine papoose she'd made before she had flown out to take the strain off of her when she flew up the peak. Mildred had been cursing the inventor of magical broomstick flight for a long time; when you watched films like _The Wizard of Oz_ or _Harry Potter_ where broomstick fliers like the Wicked Witch of the West, or Harry Potter and the Quidditch teams in the different movies, you saw them sitting on the broomsticks as though they were horseback riding.

Why was it so hard for _actual_ witches and wizards to do the same thing?

Anyway, Mildred had started riding the broomstick as if she had was riding on a horse after nearly falling off of the bloody thing after she had nearly fallen off the damn thing after flying her broomstick in the same way Miss Drill had taught her when she had first started out at Cackles. Three times. In the end, she had become so fed up she had opted to sit on it like she was sitting on a horse.

 _What HB and Drill don't know won't kill them, will it?_ Mildred thought to herself, though truthfully if the two witches _ever_ found out she wouldn't give a flying fuck.

But even flying in that way had problems because it didn't entirely take the weight away from the jewelled head of the elephant she had stolen from that tribe, but fortunately, her balancing problem was completely gone. Mildred had always had problems with flying because she was never properly balanced on her broomstick; most young witches and wizards learnt how to fly just as soon as they were old enough to walk, and they simply practised all the time when they had moments to themselves.

 _I should have done this years ago,_ Mildred thought to herself as she sat astride her broomstick, _maybe if I get back I will, and if HB and Drill don't like it, well it's just too fucking bad. I'm too old to care about detentions and other pointless crap like that._

Mildred craned her neck upwards to take in the full height of the peak. She wasn't looking forward to this, not one little bit. But this was her only chance for freedom, her only chance to get out of this fucking place with Ethel and the others, although the fact she and her friends would need to get three tokens to get out had thrown a spanner in the works. _I swear,_ she thought to herself bitingly as she remembered her earlier annoyance on top of everything else _if we get to the top of the peak, and by now Ethel and the other_ _ **are**_ _probably already there, I will go ballistic if there's another hurdle to getting out of here._

Mildred pushed that out of her mind; thinking about that wouldn't help her, and in any case, she needed all of her energy and concentration just to get to the top of the peak. With that in mind Mildred looked around the base of the peak as she approached, and she spotted a ledge that was quite high up, though it wasn't impossible to reach on a broomstick, though she remembered the way the broomstick had almost fallen apart when she had raised it to a certain height before her capture. As she went closer she saw the ledge was quite high up she realised she didn't have many alternatives but to fly up, and she prayed the broomstick she was on didn't fall to bits.

Mildred blew out a breath, but before she could even will her broom to fly up, she was suddenly shocked when her vision went black and all she could see were oily feathers and all she could hear were the caws of birds. "Aaahh!" she gasped in shock and pulled her broomstick back though she needed to get much further away from the birds that had suddenly flying upwards to God knew where.

She looked upwards as they flew away from the peak. She didn't know and frankly didn't care what kind of birds they were, nor did she know why the birds suddenly appeared like that. Mildred waited until the last bird flew away before she made her ascent.

* * *

Van Pelt cursed his carelessness. He had not used the network of caves leading up the peak for a long time, but then he had witnessed the dark-haired one, Mildred, flying outside and he took a look. He had been following the others, and he had noticed the time difference between both the others who were led by the other older blonde witch who had come into the game at the same time Mildred had, and he guessed something must have happened for them to be separated though what it was the hunter neither knew nor really cared, though he could hazard a guess; he had noticed smoke in the distance coming in the direction of a tribe he had passed earlier though even they weren't stupid enough to come close to him especially since in the past he had slaughtered a good few members of their tribe after they had tried to attack him.

He had entered the caves just as Ethel and the others had flown above, although for them the journey was easier; the caves were narrow, and they took him forever to get to the levels where they would widen.

Van Pelt often wondered if it was Jumanji which had deliberately made it that way, to make it sporting for his prey, but he couldn't be sure.

When he had seen the hovering witch who was more interested in looking upwards at the peak towering above them, Van Pelt hadn't been able to resist taking a look. Unfortunately, he had startled a flock of birds who had flown out at Mildred, nearly knocking the witch off of her broomstick.

For a moment he had thought the witch, whom he knew was curious, would try to investigate.

Fortunately, she didn't.

Instead, she just flew up and out of sight.

Van Pelt sighed in relief, acknowledging his mistake. He had been more eager than he should have been, and he had nearly lost the element of surprise, but fortunately, the witch wasn't interested in investigating the cause of the flock's flight.

She hadn't realised he was there. Good. He still had a chance, now he had to get out of this part of the network and reach the peak, and when he got there he would finally win the hunt.

* * *

Mildred jumped off of the broomstick with relief. The broomstick had very nearly shaken itself to pieces as she had raised it higher - she really wished she had the time where she could work out what the cause was though she suspected the game was just drawing more magic away or something like that - and she had very nearly not made it to the ledge without breaking any bones or grazing herself. That was impressive enough, but she had almost lost the elephant's trunk statue she had _very nearly been caught_ stealing and risked her life for, it had very nearly fallen over the ledge, but she had _just_ managed to catch it.

 _Just…_

Once she was sure she had saved it, Mildred had stepped onto the ledge and decided to take a rest. She needed a few minutes of wobbling around on the ledge before she regained her equilibrium.

She hadn't been a good flier when she had been a student at Cackles, but everything she had picked up over the years from her first year through to now had been mostly trial and error though Ethel had given her hints and tips about how she could control her flight and she had gotten better as a result although she had been annoyed the teachers at Cackles had bought into that crap about students already having a good grounding in magic and hadn't seen fit to help her although in a way it had helped because it had urged her to try her best, but that climb up…

It hadn't been too bad at first, but when the shaking had begun Mildred had been terrified the broom would tear itself to pieces, and it had gotten worse and worse as she had urged the broom to go higher.

Mildred took her first look around the ledge. She cried out in surprise when she suddenly tripped over a large stone. She groaned as the palms of her hands scraped the floor of the ledge and she pushed the pain aside with skill before she stood up and looked down at the stone she had just tripped upon.

When she did, she suddenly noticed the cluster of large stones that looked like they had been arranged in the cramped space of the ledge. Mildred frowned in curiosity for a moment while she walked around them, and then she saw the stones were arranged in words. It took Mildred a few minutes to translate what it said and what it meant.

It said _**WE CAME UP HERE - ETHEL HALLOW.**_

Mildred smiled as she looked up, hoping to see the distant forms of Ethel, Bella, and Miranda above although logically she knew it was hopeless; if they had been here, then it meant they were probably much further up. And the ledge was too narrow to give her a good view upwards, and she couldn't see anything above because there was another ledge directly over her head.

After a few more minutes Mildred just shrugged her shoulders, and considered it irrelevant; while it was disappointing she couldn't see her friends and let them know she was okay, she was glad she was on the right track. She wondered just how far up they were by now, but if she knew Ethel they would be very well near the top by now. The blonde witch was stubborn, and she was probably driving them all on, and while Ethel had learnt from her it was better to use honey instead of vinegar to get what she wanted, there were times Mildred had nearly been driven mad by Ethel's bossy streak.

She rubbed her face and walked back over to the broomstick she had been flying and she bent down and picked it up and looked at it thoughtfully.

Mildred glanced down at the broomsticks she had made earlier, and she wondered just how long they would last before she held out the broomstick she had in her hand ready for flight. She needed to check something out. She needed to know if the broomsticks would last above a certain height, and this seemed like a perfect time to see it.

She sat astride the broom, and she kicked off lightly off of the ledge though she didn't go too high. The broom rose above the ledge, but it didn't shake itself to pieces as it had before.

Mildred smiled. She'd just confirmed her theory; the broomsticks could go above a certain height, but unlike in the past they didn't just become useless like they had in the past. Good, that meant she wouldn't have to change them periodically, but the thought of having to go through the same thing over and over again didn't worry her; she'd been doing it for the past three decades.

In the meantime, she would rest.

Mentally willing her broomstick to land back on the ledge, Mildred leaned the broom against the face of the rock and she looked around for inspiration for something to do before she decided to just sit and rest.

And at the same time, she would think.

It was all she could do up here, really. She looked up and wondered how Ethel was doing now, but she wasn't in any hurry to go up and find out.

It was pointless to just fly up there and hope to see them. The best thing to do would be to fly up much like they were, and hopefully, she would reach them before they tried to find the last of the tokens, the Tiger's Eye. Thinking of the tokens made her glare at the elephant's head, the jewel was glinting in the light of the daylight.

The sparkles coming off of the gleaming jewel seemed to be mocking her, mocking her for her hopes and her desires just to get out of here and out of Jumanji.

She knew it was illogical, but there were times ever since Miranda and Bella had appeared in the game and she and Ethel had finally been able to fly through the Barrier and see what was on the other side for the first time in their thirty-year imprisonment whether they'd finally be able to leave or if they would be trapped here for the rest of their lives.

Again, Mildred knew it wasn't logical.

For a start, the instructions of the game outside said they would need to shout out the name of the game when they neared the end of it, and everything about the board game from the trails the pieces was meant to follow all reached the centre of the board much like a conventional board game. So it must end at some point. But when the thing about the tokens had appeared, Mildred had felt all of her hopes dwindle sharply.

They were _not_ playing Jumanji.

Jumanji was _playing_ them. And it frustrated and annoyed Mildred no end, but she knew she wasn't the only one. She knew Ethel knew it as well, and the blonde witch who had never had a good hold over her temper in all the years Mildred had known her, was just as furious as well. But there was nothing they could do, they knew they had to play the game fully or it would never let them go.

But they could not ignore the facts every single time they felt they were coming closer and closer to the end - passing through the Barrier had been the first time ever the two witches had ever felt positive the end was neigh - something else, another hurdle, was dropped into their midst and left them hanging.

The Barrier had been the biggest hurdle Mildred and Ethel had ever endured, and they had endured it for _thirty years already,_ Mildred just didn't want the tokens to be one hurdle they'd hoped would be the last, but it turned out there would be even more in the way. She didn't know how she would cope, nor did she know how the others would either.

All she wanted was to go home. She just wanted to see her mother again...

Mildred closed her eyes, trying hard to stop the images and the memories of her mother from overwhelming her. It was funny, she had tried hard not to think about her too much. In the early days, she had been stuck in this hell, she and Ethel both had thoughts about their loved ones. It had nearly torn them apart. Finally, in the end, both Mildred and Ethel resolved to not really think about them except in their minds so it wouldn't be too depressing for them.

And it was.

Mildred didn't want either Miranda or Bella to go through the same thing; she had deliberately kept the two girls at arm's length so then she wouldn't have to endure their emotions because she didn't want to face her own. It wasn't the nicest thing she could do, but Mildred wasn't worried about that, and she knew Ethel was more or less doing the same thing, though she couldn't resist having Bella around.

Bella was Ethel's niece, but more than once Mildred had caught sight of the melancholic expression Ethel had worn on her face each time she was probably thinking about Esmerelda and Sybil.

She wondered what the two Hallow sisters were thinking right now outside of the game. With that in mind, Mildred wondered what was happening outside of the game with everyone.

She remembered what Miranda and Bella had told her and Ethel about the school being thoroughly searched, witch hunts and God knew what else for a lead. Everyone had assumed shortly after Mildred and Ethel had disappeared from Cackles that they had either been kidnapped or they had simply run away. It had never occurred to any of the searchers or even a few of the teachers and students at the school itself barring a few - Maud and Enid amongst them - that it made no sense given how they _knew_ Mildred wouldn't just run off without going home and letting Julie know she was okay.

Mildred smiled softly at the thought of her friends. She wondered how they were taking the news of the disappearance of Miranda and Bella even if it didn't really concern them all that much. She knew it would bring back bad memories for both Enid and Maud (she smirked as she recalled from Miranda just what Enid had been getting up to; somehow it didn't surprise her that her friend was doing well with her life, as the owner of a joke business even if Enid had never really shown interest in businesses in the past, although she hoped Enid had a… _better_ relationship with her daughter, Tasha than she'd ever had with her parents).

No, that was unfair.

Mildred knew the relationship between Enid and her parents was radically different from the relationship if you could even call the mess Ethel shared with her own parents a relationship. Mildred knew Enid's parents, although a glamorous couple who loved the lifestyle they had, deeply cared for Enid, and over the years Mildred had learnt a great deal about Ethel.

And yet… she couldn't help but wonder how Mr and Mrs Hallow would take to Ethel when they returned. She deliberately made sure she didn't think _if._

She knew she had to be positive if she wanted to finally get out of Jumanji.

* * *

"Come on, you two," Ethel was calling down, while she was ignoring the shaking of her broomstick as they rose higher and higher and the effects became worse. She was getting tired of their lives revolving around these homemade pieces of rubbish, but they had no choice.

Miranda flinched as she was nearly thrown clean off of her own broom before they reached the next ledge. Now they had to wait for Bella. The flight up the peak seemed to be going on forever and ever, and it was becoming more difficult since there were fewer ledges to fly onto, so the witches had to push their broomsticks to go even further up.

But the good news was it looked like they were coming to the top of the peak, though they just _hoped_ they reached the top and found a way out.

"I'm not doing that again in a hurry," Bella was shaking as she tried to regain some control over herself but she was shaking so hard as a result of what her broom had tried to do to her.

"We've got to," Ethel said, stating the obvious while she looked patiently at the two younger witches; she didn't feel any anger towards them for being reluctant to keep going, she could accept they had their limits, but they needed to go on otherwise they would never get out of Jumanji. "I want to try to get to the top of the peak by tonight."

"That could take hours, especially at this rate!" Bella glared at her aunt though it was ruined by the fact she was still wobbling, though Ethel could tell she was more frightened the next time they flew up it would kill them all.

And she didn't blame her niece for the attitude.

Ethel sighed as she looked at her niece, knowing she was right. "We've got no choice, Bella," Ethel replied.

Meanwhile, Miranda was looking upwards to try to work out how far they had to go. She had to crane her neck as far as it would go back, and although it was painful without stepping back over the edge, the girl could just see the next ledge up. She instantly judged it as too far for their broomsticks to reach.

"We'll never reach the next ledge in one go," she said out loud quietly before an idea came to her sharp mind and she looked down and saw the extra brooms lying on the floor of the ledge. She mentally kicked herself.

"Ethel," she called loudly, "I think when we leave the ledge, we fly up as far as we can before the brooms become unstable and then change over to a new broom and go up."

Ethel caught the plan instantly and she mentally kicked and cursed herself for not seeing it earlier, it was so obvious a child could have seen through it. "That's a good idea," she commented mildly. "We would need to be very quick as we go through it; I don't want to change brooms when the ones we're riding are shaking."

"We'll just have to keep them ready when we do it," Miranda replied without any real idea of how they could do it without being ready.

Bella shook her head. "When are we going back up?" she asked.

"When you're not shaking anymore," Ethel replied before she picked up her broom and walked over to the edge, clearly meaning to take flight. Miranda and Bella stood up, mistakenly thinking Ethel was about to leave regardless, but the older witch waved them back.

"Don't," she said shortly while she prepared to lift-off. "I just want to take a look."

Ethel kicked off the ground and slowly lifted the broom up into the air, hoping the time it hadn't been used would mean it was alright to fly since she had no intention of using one of the spares right now. She gently willed the broomstick to rise higher to test it although she didn't go really high. Once she was satisfied the broom was safe, Ethel flew out only she travelled a fair distance away from the ledge and the mountain. Once she felt she had gone a fair distance away, Ethel took the time to study the peak and she sighed in relief.

The peak wasn't that tall from where she was sitting, but she could very well understand why Bella and Miranda believed it was going to take forever to reach the top. Even she had thought it was going to take until doomsday until they reached the top of the peak since it had been a nightmare having to fly up, land on a ledge, rest for a bit, then fly up, and on it went.

But looking up at the peak Ethel was just relieved it was almost over. At the same time she wondered just how they were going to find the other tokens, but Ethel had long since decided not to worry too much about that; she had no idea if the game would give them the tokens if they actually _sought_ them out, or if they simply travelled to different parts this side of the Barrier for them. The Leopard's Head was more luck than by design, she knew that, but she had the feeling it was proof of the latter, the game would give them the tokens if they travelled to different parts of Jumanji.

She had no intention of doing that.

It would take forever to properly explore this part of the game, and in truth even if they did that they could spend so long looking for the other two tokens, and none of the witches wanted to do that.

They all wanted to get out of here. With that thought in mind, Ethel turned her head and looked around, fully aware she was hovering above a hostile jungle in a magical game. She could hear the sounds of the jungle, from the trumpeting calls of the elephants to the chattering of the monkeys and the caws of the different birds.

She had long since pushed those sounds out of her mind when she had begun taking them for granted.

And yet, as she sat there on her broomstick, listening to the long-familiar sounds of the jungle, Ethel wondered if, today, this would be the last day she would ever hear the same sounds that had surrounded, and haunted, her and Mildred for the last thirty years.

She hoped so.

She wanted to go home.

Today.

Ethel wouldn't miss Jumanji. The game had brought her so much pain and grief over the years, and now that they seemed to be so close, _so closest_ finally leaving the game behind, she couldn't help but think about the earlier days they'd been here.

She remembered how frightened she and Mildred had been when they had found themselves here before they realised where they were. And what had she done?

She had stormed off in a huff, and she and Mildred had very nearly gotten killed on their first day simply because she didn't know how to control her temper. And they had very nearly been torn to pieces by chimpanzees, and if they hadn't gone down that waterfall, they would have been killed.

 _Oh, I was an arrogant bitch, wasn't I?_ Ethel thought to herself as she remembered the reason for her anger, how she had once more pointed the finger of blame towards Mildred, who didn't deserve it.

Mildred wasn't to blame for the whole mess, but that hadn't mattered to the teenage Ethel Hallow who had spent the last couple of summers trying to learn from her mistakes, although she hadn't a very good job.

She closed her eyes as she remembered how she had very nearly repeated her mistakes when it came to her sisters. She had given Esmerelda's magic to Agatha bloody Cackle on a plate.

She had sworn never to do the same thing again, but what did she do? She cast a spell to trap _her sister_ in the same room with the Founding Stone so then Esmerelda would have no alternative but to take the magic in the stone for herself, but she hadn't realised _Sybil_ would be trapped in the same room.

Ethel had had thirty years to grow into her own person, she hadn't had any choice especially since every single day was like living on a spells' edge. At the same time, she had needed to learn how to control her temper.

 _I think I have, right? I have learnt to control myself for the better._

Yeah. She felt she had grown as a person, and she had certainly come a long way from the arrogant, self-centred little bitch who had come here. It did help she had spent so long in Jumanji.

Ethel looked back at the peak, her mind full of plans and ideas of what they could do next. She could see that they could probably use one broom to reach the next ledge up, only to change over so then they didn't need to land and then move up to the next, and on and on it would go until they reached the top. She would need to consult with Miranda and Bella, but Ethel felt it was the only solution.

Ethel was just about to direct her broomstick back to the ledge where she had left Miranda and Bella when she happened to look down and noticed something moving upwards. Slowly flying her broom back to the ledge while she looked down in the hopes of catching a better glimpse at whatever it was. Ethel stopped her broomstick and looked down, needing to squint before she decided to conjure a pair of binoculars so she could look down.

It took Ethel a few moments to focus the binoculars downwards, and she smiled when she caught sight of a familiar sight. Mildred. She was flying up the side of the peak much like Ethel, Miranda, and Bella had.

It did occur to Ethel to simply wait for the brunette witch to fly up and reach them. She wanted to do that, but she knew practically it was not a good idea. It would take Mildred hours to reach them. But as she watched Mildred fly from one ledge to another Ethel could see for herself the other witch was using their new idea; she was changing the different brooms around to catch up. When she saw that, Ethel's desire to stay was fully ignited even if her brain said it would still take Mildred _ages_ just to fly up, and yet Ethel didn't want to be separated from her friend again.

She remembered all the times the pair of them had been separated in the past, and each time it had been painful because the pair of them needed each other.

 _It's ironic,_ she thought to herself as she continued to watch as the other witch flew up the peak, _I need Mildred after spending so long bullying her simply because she had the type of life I wanted all the time but I was too young and immature to see that I had something she had wanted…_

It had been a shock to the system when she had learnt Mildred had been jealous of her the whole time of having Esmerelda and Sybil as sisters, only the other witch had hidden her jealousy even more. Ethel snickered to herself as she remembered _how jealous_ she had been that Mildred Hubble was better at hiding jealousy than she was.

And yet at the same time, it had given Ethel the means to become friends with Mildred, for which she was grateful for.

Ethel was jolted from her thoughts when the image of Mildred as she gradually flew up became blurred and there was a sound not unlike the crackling of old dried leaves in autumn when you stepped on them. She pulled her gaze away from the lenses and saw the binoculars were literally falling apart. She dropped the pair and it went tumbling down as gravity took hold, though she knew they would not be whole when they hit the ground, and she went back to the ledge with the news she had when she realised there was no more point of her being out here.

When she landed on the ledge she told the two girls about what she had seen. "So Mildred's managed to get this far?" Miranda said. "What are we going to do?"

"I was thinking about staying here and waiting," Ethel replied, "she's using the idea we were gonna use to reach the top without constantly aiming for the next ledge up."

"That could still take time," Bella pointed out. By now the two witches had recovered from their shaky flight, but they weren't in any great hurry to leave the ledge either and go through the same thing again.

"I know."

"Perhaps we should wait," Bella said, looking at her friend. In truth the blonde really didn't want to fly up for a while yet, and the time it would take for Mildred to reach them would give them the time they needed to recover, though the extra time it would for Mildred to get back on her feet after being on a broomstick for so long would also be a bonus. But she wasn't going to admit that.

Ethel looked around and saw that the sun was still high, so they had time. Just so long as Mildred arrived before it went dark….

It seemed to take forever for Mildred to arrive at their ledge. The brunette haired witch was rising above the ledge and was just changing over ( _Is she sitting astride that thing?_ Ethel had asked herself) and almost didn't see the others on the ledge before Bella called up.

"Mildred! Mildred, down here!"

Mildred flew down like a rocket. "Am I glad to see you," she said, gladly getting off of her broomstick and throwing it and the other one she'd made to the ground but she staggered around. "I hate flying at the best of times, but I've been sitting on them both all day."

"Yes, while we're on that subject, why were you sitting like that?" Ethel asked.

Mildred looked up, and she unwrapped the vine papoose she had made for the elephants' head. When the other witches saw the jewelled elephants' head they were surprised but then they cheered up greatly.

"You found it! Where was it?"

Mildred waved off the question so she could sit down. The flight had really worn Mildred out, and it wasn't helped she was hungry and thirsty at the same time. "The tribe that captured me had it in a tent. I had to set fire to most of the village before I could get to it," she explained without going into too much detail about what else she'd had to do. She also hoped they had enough decency to not ask her _what_ the tribe had wanted to do with her. That was something she did not want to share, even with Ethel.

Fortunately, her friends were more focused on one thing. "You had to set fire to a village?" Miranda whispered.

Mildred nodded, hoping Miranda wasn't the type of person who would judge you for injuring a snail. She had done what had needed to be done, and besides, if she hadn't set fire to the village, she would never have been able to distract the warriors and grab the jewelled head. If she hadn't then she would still be in the village, trussed up and barely able to move. If Miranda thought she honestly cared, she would be waiting for a long time.

The last thirty years had hardened Mildred, and more than once over the years she and Ethel had needed to hurt the twisted peoples who lived here. She didn't like it, but she had done it anyway.

Ethel cut in quickly when she saw the emotions play over Mildred's face. "Well, we've now got three," she commented before Mildred could lose it with Miranda, "so it doesn't matter how you got hold of it. That means we've got two-thirds of the tokens we need to get out. Things are looking up."

"We still need the Tiger's Eye," Mildred pointed out while she looked up.

"I know that, Mildred Hubble," Ethel masked her sudden embarrassment with bluster.

Mildred chuckled, letting Ethel know it was okay. But her smile disappeared. "I'm too mentally tired to think about that stupid token," she said honestly, letting her irritation over the whole thing bleed out into her voice.

"We've got to," Bella said, not seeing the danger signs. "Anyway, when do you feel fit enough to go back on the brooms?"

"I'm not."

Later as they were about to fly up after Mildred had recovered, Ethel took Mildred aside.

"Alright, I know you better than those two," the elder blonde said, "what happened with this tribe?"

Mildred sighed. She should have known Ethel would have pressed, but she had hoped the other witch would have had the decency to just let it rest but it seemed Ethel's curiosity knew no boundaries.

"They were going to turn me into a broodmare," she said bluntly; she might have glossed over this type of thing when she was younger, but after all the time she had been in Jumanji with only Ethel for company, it was logical she would have picked up on a few of the blonde's habits.

Ethel wasn't expecting that and she looked at Mildred with surprise, though she was not completely surprised given that they had encountered dozens of tribes in Jumanji with their own traditions. It made sense to her, given how more than one tribe out there had tried to get them married in the past they would take it this far.

But hearing this…

It was really rare they ever encountered tribe who wanted to do _that_ to one of them.

 _No wonder Mildred burnt down that village,_ Ethel thought to herself.

"Oh Merlin," she whispered.

Mildred nodded. "I had to burn the place down otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get the token. Now we just need to find the last token, and then hopefully we can all leave."

Ethel could see clearly Mildred's youthful gullibility was struggling to come back, but she knew it wouldn't be easy since Mildred was a lot more seasoned now and had spent thirty years losing hope of escape. "Yeah," the blonde said at last before she went with Mildred to pick up their broomsticks which they would use to get to the top.

* * *

Ethel was relieved when they reached the top because they had managed to arrive just as the sun was about to set. But their relief they had made it this far was quickly shot down the moment they saw the top of the peak. It was a small plateau covered in swamp. They couldn't make out a lot of the details since the top of the peak was essentially a shallow bowl but they could see the eerily still and placid water of a lake. Mildred and Ethel's eyes were both wide with dismay as they took in the scene. They had a lot of truly bad memories of swamps since death lurked everywhere in them more than anywhere else in Jumanji. They could already hear the sounds of the animals here, which seemed to mock them. But then they saw something that gave them hope.

In the centre of the plateau was a hill. On it was a stone shaped like a big cat's head.


	24. Chapter 24

I don't own the Worst Witch or Jumanji.

Only one more chapter to go, please let me know what you think.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

"Well, at least we know where to go," Bella commented dryly, her eyes fixed on the faraway hill. The elder witches caught the clear relief in her voice and they didn't blame her for her attitude, but their minds were on other things at the moment. They had had a look around in the hopes of finding more and they had seen there weren't any tall trees nearby they could forage around looking for materials to make fresh broomsticks.

In any case, none of the witches was entirely sure the new broomsticks, if they were made, would work at all.

And besides, they were all worried out of their minds about the loss. Without the broomsticks, their chances of getting to the other side of the swamp, and up the hill did not look good. Miranda looked around. "We can get there in an hour before it gets too dark," she said, looking into the sky. It was still light enough, but it would soon be night.

Meanwhile, Mildred was looking grimly around the swampland. "Oooh, I'm not looking forward to that," she nodded at the swamp as she spoke to Ethel.

"Neither am I, but at least we've got the broomsticks," Ethel pointed out to Mildred.

"True. Hopefully, we can reach the top in an hour or so," Mildred said, and she slipped herself back on the broomstick while she checked she still had the token she had stolen from the tribe she had half burnt to the ground. Mildred kicked off the ground and channelled her magic into the lift-off. Nothing happened.

Mildred looked down at the broomstick in surprise. What? What was wrong? She tried to kick off the ground again but nothing happened. The broomstick would not rise. She looked down at the wooden handle of the homemade broomstick. She and Ethel had grown accustomed to making and using these things over the last thirty years to get around. It was a trap. But in Jumanji, they had no choice, not if they wanted to live since they had learnt the hard way moving around on the ground was suicide. They had both become used to flying as a way of getting around until they had both taken the broomsticks for granted. Mildred had fully expected the broomstick to take off, but now she was looking at it with worry.

Ethel noticed her worried expression. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"My broomstick. It won't take off," Mildred replied as she tried one of the other brooms and tried the same thing only she received the same result. She looked up at Ethel, her eyes wide with worry. "Try yours."

Ethel did as she was told and she skilfully mounted her broomstick and tried to kick off the ground, certain that for some reason despite the brunette's experience with them she had gotten something wrong. "You're probably not doing it right, Mildred," Ethel was unable to resist saying, ignoring the indignant look Mildred was sending her way.

Once she was sitting on the broomstick Ethel kicked off, fully expecting the broomstick to lift off the ground as she did only to be disappointed when it didn't so much as lift a centimetre off of the ground.

Mildred saw her reaction and smirked inwardly. "You see, I'm not doing it wrong," she pointed out.

Ethel tried to kick off the ground again, only to receive the same result.

Miranda stared at the now-useless broomsticks with worry. "What's wrong with them?"

Bella was also looking at them and around the swamp with fear. In her terror, she was starting to think the swamp was _watching_ them. It probably was.

"We can't fly anymore, Auntie Ethie?" she asked.

Ethel took a deep breath. She didn't want to scare her niece, but it looked like it was going to happen regardless. "I don't know, Bella," she replied, her mind racing as she tried to think about how this could have happened, and what they could do about it.

Mildred was also trying to think about what could have done this. She had walked over to where Bella and Miranda had dropped their brooms, and she was examining them. "I think we've flown in Jumanji for the last time," she said thoughtfully.

"But if we can't fly, that means we have to…," Bella trailed off as she looked out over the swampland between them and the hill with the big cat's head carved into the rock of the peak, unable to finish her statement; she and Miranda had understood why her aunt and Mildred had started riding broomsticks in the first place, especially after all the times they had been on the ground where they had nearly been killed as they had recently in that stampede, and just _looking_ at the swamp filled her with terror.

Miranda licked her lips, her own eyes worried with fear as she looked out over the swamp as if she were trying to mentally peel back everything they _could see_ in the deceptively mild and calm looking swamp to see _what was there_ that could kill them all. "We have to go in on foot," she finished her friend's sentence in terror.

Mildred stood up and looked out over the swamp. "We're not going in now," she finished, looking firmly at Ethel. "We're not going into that swamp tonight."

"What makes you think I'm stupid enough to say we're going in now, Mildred Hubble?" Ethel looked at the brunette in irritation; she could understand that everyone expected her to say they should go, but with the broomsticks out of action and their only way of getting across the swamp gone, they would need to rethink everything through and quickly.

"Night's falling. Even if we could get through the swamp, who knows what's in there?" Mildred just wouldn't let it go, much to Ethel's annoyance, Bella's terror, and Miranda's irritation. In the end, Ethel held up her hands and growled out. "Alright, we're not going in, not tonight."

"Good," Mildred smiled; she knew she had pushed the limit there, but Ethel had often crossed the line without thinking about the consequences. The last thing they needed right now was to find themselves a crocs' dinner if they went out at night across the swamp.

Ethel rolled her eyes at Mildred while she looked around, trying to find inspiration in what they could do next. But looking around didn't fill her with too much confidence; they were currently on a small hill overlooking the swamp, but fortunately, they were quite a distance from the water. But that wasn't what filled her with worry. In the distance, she could see-

"Are those crocodiles or alligators?" Miranda stupidly asked while she looked in confusion at the massive reptilian forms on the bank. The-whatever they were, they couldn't tell what they were, not from this distance, were sunning themselves on the bank of the lake. They also had their mouths open and birds were going about picking the bits of meat lodged inside between their teeth out of their mouths. Even Mildred and Ethel, who knew more about natural history, out of the quartet did not know what they were, and they were not in a hurry to find out for themselves. Their dark shapes were sinister enough as they lay on the bank, but with their mouths open they were positively terrifying in the dark lighting.

"Does it matter?" Ethel looked at Miranda.

"Stop it, both of you!" Mildred chided them while she looked around, and then she spotted something not far from where they were. "What's that?" she pointed.

Ethel and the others looked in the direction Mildred was pointing in, and they spotted a long, low shape that had a familiar form.

"Is that…a boat?" Bella asked, squinting at the object.

"It looks like it. Come on," Miranda moved to head over to it, but Mildred grabbed her before she could get too far. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Didn't you hear? We are _not going_ across that swamp at night!" Mildred couldn't believe or even understand just how stupid this girl was. "Do you have any idea of what could be in that water? Do you know what a Jumanji swamp is like at night? We do. The shore is bad enough. We have seen freshwater crabs the size of dinner plates scuttle around, their shells chinking and their pincers are strong enough to snap the bones of our _wrists_ , but if you think crocodiles or alligators, or whatever those things are over there are bad, that's just the beginning."

Mildred leaned forward. She didn't want to frighten either of the two girls, but they _needed_ to see the dangers in this place. Honestly, she had no idea why Miranda who had been bitten by that snake and knew of the dangers of this place had wanted to take such a dangerous risk where there would be no chance of coming back. She hoped the girl was just determined to get home that she hadn't used her common sense. "There are things in that swamp water, things _you cannot even see_. Not even when it is too late. We've spent nights sleeping near swamps, Miranda," Mildred was grim as she remembered the times where she and Ethel had been forced to sleep near swamps without having any choice. "We were sometimes kept awake because we were frightened of falling asleep because we often heard the animals snatch something in the night, we could hear the terrible sound. And then we _heard them eat it._ And it wasn't just now and then. It was _every single moment of the night._ And we were terrified of moving so much as an _inch_ in case we were next. You know how dangerous Jumanji is, and yet you want to go over the water at night?!"

Miranda looked shaken by the story, and in the dim light, Mildred could see the fear. Inwardly Miranda was kicking herself for wanting to escape Jumanji without thinking about the dangers. When she had seen the shape they had thought to be a boat after it was clear their broomsticks no longer worked, and it was practically pointless making more, she had forgotten in her eagerness they could escape at last.

"I'm sorry," she said, unable to find anything better to say to them. "I just wanted-."

"To get out of Jumanji?" Mildred's voice was grim as she completed Miranda's sentence.

Miranda couldn't say anything. She didn't need too. Her silence was more than enough for the others.

"Listen, can we at least look at this thing to see if it is a boat?" Bella asked, tired of the negativity towards Miranda even if she could understand and sympathise with the two arguments. "Just to be on the safe side?"

Ethel nodded and she walked over to the boat-like shape cautiously. Mildred and the others watched and waited patiently as Ethel walked around the shape; it looked as though the boat was resting on some kind of platform, judging by how Ethel was walking around it and the front of it, the part nearest the water didn't seem right.

"Mildred," Miranda's voice broke through the silence while Ethel continued to examine the boat while she took her time doing it.

"Mm?" Mildred was too busy looking out where her friend was to properly pay any attention to Miranda.

"I'm sorry about what I nearly did-," Miranda said, unable to let go of her mistake. Bella wrapped an arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

Mildred sighed. She hadn't liked the way she had spoken to Miranda, even if it had gotten the message into the young girl's brain. She had just been so horrified the girl would be so stupid to go across the swamp without thinking about what it could do to them all. She had reacted on reflex, and she could see it and it made her feel guilty because she had always seen herself as a carefree girl with a passion for life. The idea she could act like that and see evidence of it made her feel sick because she had never pictured herself being like that. Worse, it reminded her of the manner Miss Gullet and Miss Hardbroom had spoken to her during her first year at Cackles (her second year did not count since her time at Cackles had admittedly improved since her knowledge of magic had improved over the course of the summer holiday between her first and second years, although there were moments where she had pissed off Hardbroom, but that was the way Cackles was since HB was so inflexible it was not funny), and she did not like it.

"Miranda, I want to leave Jumanji as well. Me and Ethel have both wanted to escape for the last thirty years. We understand why you went for the boat without thinking, but you've got to keep in mind we won't get out of here if we're dead." Mildred kicked herself mentally for saying something so horrible, but it worked to make the younger witch wake up and see reality.

"And besides, do you think Ethel and I haven't made mistakes ourselves? I know you don't want to hear this, Bella," Mildred looked apologetically towards the younger Hallow witch somewhat sheepishly, making Bella look at her curiously, "but your aunt made a number of mistakes which nearly got us both killed-."

"You're never going to let me forget that time I stormed off in a huff and we nearly got killed, are you?" Ethel's voice called out and the other witches turned in her direction and they found that Ethel had returned safe and sound.

"I might do so long as you don't remind me of some of the things I nearly did, and besides you have to admit we've both made enough poor decisions that nearly got us both killed," Mildred said smiling, but then her face became more serious and she nodded in the direction of the shape Ethel had just been studying. "What did you find?"

"It's alright. It's quite long and sturdy. And it looks strong enough to survive a trip through the swamp to the hill."

"We saw you walking around quite a bit," Mildred commented, looking at her friend knowingly, knowing that Ethel wouldn't have done that if she hadn't have been unsure of something.

"Yeah," Ethel nodded. "The boat is sitting on some kind of platform, and there's a kind of chain attached to it that is connected to a lever. It looks like you just pull it, and the boat will go into the water; don't ask me how it works."

"Yes, I've seen non-magical boats go into the water with the same method," Mildred said thoughtfully.

"You've seen it before?"

"Once or twice. I don't know how it all works any more than you do, so don't ask. What else did you find?"

"I don't know if this means something, but I did find out the platform was a lot larger than I thought," Ethel replied. "It looks like there is meant to be more than one boat there. And I found another behind the one you can see right now, with its own lever. But check this, there's another lever with another chain, but there's no boat. It looks like its gone."

 _Another boat?_

Miranda and Bella stared at each other, both of them wondering clearly if this was at all relevant and what it meant for them all, but the look exchanged between both Mildred and Ethel made it clear the adult witches had a good idea of what this meant.

It was the only thing that made sense.

 _Van Pelt._

The hunter must have taken the third boat, and had beaten them to the hill. If that was true, they would need to be careful.

"What does the missing boat mean. It's gone, so what?" Bella looked between her still unspeaking aunt and Mildred, unable to understand why they both seemed so worried.

"It's Van Pelt, isn't it?" Bella demonstrated the same sharpness which had made her family one of the most prestigious magical families in their community as she looked between both her aunt and Mildred. "Van Pelt took the boat, and you think he's out there?"

"Just because we haven't seen him for a bit doesn't mean he isn't out there, somewhere, Bella," Ethel told her niece, inwardly pleased that her elder sister's genes for sharp intellect had been passed down to Bella.

Mildred shook her head. "It does make sense. There must be another way up here, and since he's a part of Jumanji, he wouldn't have had any trouble getting here." Suddenly Mildred stopped as a thought materialised in her mind. "Oh no."

"What?" Ethel looked at her in sudden concern.

"I think I passed him without knowing," Mildred's eyes were wide in horror, even in the dim lighting.

This was news to Ethel and the others.

"What do you mean?" Bella looked like she was about to cry in fear.

"How couldn't you have noticed him?" Miranda demanded.

"Give her a chance to think!" Ethel glared at them before looking at her friend curiously, wondering as well how Mildred could not have seen the hunter.

"It makes sense," Mildred was almost in a world of her own. She looked up into the faces of her friends grimly. "When I was flying up the mountain peak, a flock of birds came out of nowhere. What if they were _disturbed_ by something or _someone?"_

"You think Van Pelt was there, and you didn't see him?"

"I don't know every part of Jumanji, Miranda!" Mildred snapped at the younger witch, tired of her already. "It doesn't matter now, and besides there's nothing we can do. All we can do right now is just take it easy and keep our eyes open for any sign of him. That's it."

Mildred turned back to Ethel. "What else did you find?"

"There's also a box inside containing supplies-," Ethel replied.

"What kind of supplies?"

Ethel made a face at the interruption. "There's some food and water in the boat, enough for a couple of days, maybe three. It all looks fresh and well preserved, so we shouldn't have any problems with infection. But that's not all; I found this."

Ethel held up a long paper scroll.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

Ethel unrolled it. "'Congratulations - you have reached this level in the game. Now you need to brave the swamp. In case you are not already aware, your broomsticks no longer work. It is felt being able to fly gives you an unfair advantage."

"Yeah, only because the game makes it impossible to move around without nearly being killed by everything out there," Bella folded her arms.

Ethel ignored the interruption. "Therefore, to make the game more challenging, you will be going out on foot with the tokens you have found already and you will need to find a way to reach the top of the hill."

Ethel then rolled up the scroll and shrugged. "That's it," she said lamely.

"Well, at least we know why we can't fly anymore, and even if we find bits and pieces to make even one broomstick we couldn't fly around here," Bella looked around herself worried, clearly terrified about what awaited them all now they had confirmation their one way of getting through the swamp without touching the water was gone.

"I'd still like to know where the third and last token is though," Miranda shook her head, looking and sounding annoyed at how increasingly unfair this whole mess was becoming.

"My guess is we'll stumble upon it," Mildred observed. "I mean think about it. We found on in the cave with the spiders after we were chased to it by the stampede. And the next when I was captured and taken by that tribe. I think if we look for it then we won't find it, but if we are least expecting it, we'll find it."

On the other side of the lake, Van Pelt was looking through a pair of old-fashioned looking but still powerful binoculars over to the other side of the admittedly overgrown swampland to where the witches were clustered near the two remaining boats on the bank while he remained camped out in the hide. It wasn't much of a hide, of course.

* * *

It was just a small house connecting three trees but it was camouflaged so if anyone saw it from the sides or from the ground, they would just see several interconnecting branches covered in vines and leaves. Van Pelt had reached the hide hours ago, after using the small network of tunnels to get from the base of the mountain to the top where he grabbed one of the boats knowing there was no chance of finding a way of cheating the witches out of a sense of petty spite.

It was one of the principal rules of Jumanji; his job was to hunt down the players, if possible to injure or to maim them, kill them as a bonus, but not to cheat them. If he tried then he would be punished.

And the last time he had gone against Jumanji's will….

Van Pelt pushed those memories aside and he continued his observations of the group. There was no question of them leaving the relative safety of the bank, not even Van Pelt was foolish enough to cross a dangerous swamp in the dark, and it was getting dark and each second another slither of light faded only to be replaced by pitch darkness. It was becoming increasingly harder for the hunter to observe the four witches, but he knew they were there.

He had been watching them ever since they had reached the edge of the bank. He had witnessed them trying to fly over the swamp, and he had to suppress a snicker when he had seen their attempts fail. This was the trouble with witches and wizards who found themselves in Jumanji, they became so reliant on broomstick travel when they realised how treacherous the place was and they could make their own although they wouldn't last, as soon as they reached this part of Jumanji, they were rendered almost powerless.

What did they expect? Didn't they realise their time on brooms was coming to an end as soon as they flew through the Barrier?

Van Pelt studied the witches as he tried to come up with a plan while he watched them get into one of the boats for shelter. They had just joined the crowd, all the others who had played the game had done the same, though logically they had no choice. There were crocodiles, alligators, and there were even several hippos in that swamp.

A slow grin spread across the hunter's face as he thought about the dangers of the swamp.

* * *

The witches were glad when morning broke. Not only because it meant they could finally and hopefully get away from Jumanji, but they were glad to be up, though truthfully they'd had a sleepless night. They'd gone to sleep in the boat because it was the only place safe enough for them to sleep. Mildred and Ethel had both learnt over the years not to sleep anywhere near the ground, or to find an empty cave where they could live in for a bit. Sleeping in the open or on the ground was a sure-fire way of getting yourself killed, and there was nowhere worse than a swamp.

All night the witches had heard the sounds of various animals, and they had seen the sinister shapes of the crocodiles or alligators or whatever they were called though Mildred and Ethel truly did not care what they really were, slink out of the swamp with their bodies making scratching noises that make it sound as though someone was running a chunk of sharp flint down a whetstone. That was nothing compared to their frightening roars, and the massive forms of the hippos lumbering out of the swamp.

And besides all that the boat itself was uncomfortable, and all four of the witches had needed to get as comfortable they could within the tight spaces.

It wasn't easy as it was since the boat itself was quite small. It didn't help matters that Ethel and Bella, who seemed to have inherited the bad habit from her mother even though seemed to have skipped Esmerelda, both snored and twisted and turned. In the end, both Mildred and Miranda had stuffed the Hallows mouths with some bandages to shut them up otherwise they'd all be dead.

After a rush breakfast, the witches got ready to go across the swamp. They had to be careful since there were a few crocodiles basking in the heat of the morning sun. But fortunately they were ready quickly, and they pulled the lever and with the sound of grinding, rusting chains, the boat was released into the swamp water.

The boat rocked about when it was released into the lake, and it bobbed around like a bottle for a moment before it stabilised. Mildred shared a look with Ethel.

"Okay, I think it's alright now," Ethel whispered before she pulled out an oar. It reminded Mildred of a type of oar used by those people who rode in canoes.

Mildred took out another oar and with Ethel's help, they started to slowly move the boat through the water. Mildred was in the front of the boat with her oar while Ethel was in the back. At the same time, Miranda and Bella sat between the two witches. They would have wanted to have two oars of their own, but unfortunately, there were only two oars in the boat.

"Mildred, Auntie Ethel," Bella whispered with fear suddenly when they were just half-way across the lake, "something's coming towards us."

Mildred and Ethel immediately stopped and became alert as they scanned the water. It didn't take them long before they saw the massive _shape_ just beneath the water coming towards them.

Mildred looked over her shoulder towards Ethel, and they instantly began to slowly paddle away.

"Why aren't we going faster?" Bella looked between her aunt and Mildred with confusion.

"If they go faster then that thing will chase us, and so will everything else," Miranda spoke up surprisingly.

Mildred sent the younger witch a look. "Trust me, we know what we're doing. And the last thing you want to do in a place like this is to panic. I think we've gone far enough," she added looking up at Ethel. "Let the momentum carry us forwards."

Ethel nodded while Bella and Miranda both stared at the shape that had been coming towards them. It was now moving forward, past them. Bella's eyes widened at the sheer _mass of the shape_ as it passed by. It was enormous, and it seemed to drive the water away and created miniature waves as it moved.

"What do you think that was?"

Mildred licked her lips. "I don't know," she admitted.

"Couldn't it have been a hippo?" Ethel asked.

Mildred shrugged. "Who knows? It could've been a hippo or a croc, we don't know for sure. Besides, does it really matter?"

"Nah!" Ethel said after a moment's thought, and they returned to rowing.

The rest of the trip across the water was just as nightmarish. The boat passed through overgrown trees, but that wasn't much of a problem although they had nearly been attacked by a snake before Ethel slapped it with her oar a couple of times to drive it off. Miranda had been paralysed with fear, remembering the scary encounter with the snake that very nearly killed her. But the snakes were not the only things in the swamp. There were many birds around, but for the most part, they seemed content with leaving the witches alone. But one of the best things about the overgrown trees was some of them were so narrow it was almost impossible to imagine one of the hippos or crocodiles passing through. Still, the witches certainly knew better than to take anything for granted - the water was too smooth. Still.

Mildred shared a look over her shoulder with Ethel, it was just a fleeting look but one the blonde witch recognised at once. Something was very wrong here. It was too quiet, but regardless the two witches who were paddling the boat across the swamp and through the overgrown trees knew better than to be too comfortable. They refused to take their eyes off of the water as they alternated between rowing and stopping and letting the boat simply drift for a bit forwards, carried by the momentum.

Bella and Miranda felt the tension, and they too were looking out over the swamp, both of them far too afraid to speak and even daring to breathe too loudly.

All of the witches were taken by surprise despite their vigilance when the crocodile burst out of the water in a massive explosion of brackish water which almost cloaked its shape. The crocodile roared at them, causing Bella and Miranda to scream in panic, but Mildred and Ethel quickly regained control over themselves and with a bit of creativity with the oars they managed to get around the crocodile and steered it between a narrow gap in the trees sticking out of the water.

The crocodile roared with anger and sank its head back into the water and started swimming after them. Miranda looked past Ethel's shoulders and saw the crocodile was trying to get through the gap, but it couldn't. The massive reptile exploded with rage, thrashing about madly in the water and throwing gallons of water around.

Ethel smiled as she glanced behind her, and saw that the crocodile was still roaring with anger. "I think we'll be alright," she said.

"Don't get cocky back there, you're not seeing what we're seeing right now," Mildred's voice was grim as she sat at the front of the boat.

Ethel turned and looked in front. Her view wasn't great since Mildred was in the way and she couldn't see around the trees. But then Ethel spotted what Mildred was talking about. The trees were clearing - not for the first time Ethel was starting to see what Mildred was talking about when she had said (not speculated) Jumanji was alive; it just seemed so unfair they had just stopped themselves nearly getting killed from that crocodile, and now they were heading out into an open space - and they saw a vast exposed part of the lake. From where she was sitting the water looked both still and placid, but Ethel didn't believe it for a moment.

"Oh," she said weakly as she thought about just how much _distance_ there was in this open part of the swamp, and she could guess what was between them.

"Yes," Mildred's voice was now a whisper full of dread; not that Ethel or anyone in the boat could honestly blame her, they had all seen and heard the sounds of the swamp during the night, they knew there were dangerous animals out there, and they had even seen hippos lumbering out of the water, though none of the witches was stupid enough to climb out of the boat since they were extremely fast and dangerous.

The witches in the boat knew that between where they were now and the beach at the far end there could be dozens of hippos and crocodiles.

Mildred took a deep breath. "Come on, Ethel. We may as well get on with it," the brunette said quietly, raising the oar in her hand.

"I hate to bring this up, but if we cross the lake here, won't we be exposed to the hippos and crocs?" Miranda asked hesitantly.

A stab of irritation ran up Mildred's spine. If she hated to bring something like this up, then why say a word? Especially when she was more than aware everyone in the boat knew it as well? Mildred almost snapped something back about making more instructive comments and observations, but Mildred would never do such a thing. It wasn't in her personality to be that cruel, in any case, it wasn't the way to start something like this where their very lives might end.

"You're right," Mildred said, glancing over her shoulder briefly while noticing the annoyed looks Ethel and Bella were sending; Miranda reminded Mildred of Clarice in more ways than one, but she honestly hoped the younger witch didn't say anything else that antagonised them again. "But we don't have any choice, and we don't know if there's any more of the trees in the swamp to take cover with, and besides with a bit of luck we might make it across without any trouble."

With that Mildred turned her back and started rowing them out slowly before Ethel opened her mouth; she could see her blonde friend scornfully opening her mouth to deliver a milk-curdling rant against Miranda, and she instantly got started before Ethel could speak. They needed to get across the lake and they couldn't do that if they were all at each other's throats.

The open lake was shocking in its algae green vastness. The water itself was as still as a pond, and as the boat travelled slowly across the surface while Mildred and Ethel both gently rowed out while they scanned the water carefully. As she paddled out slowly and kept her eyes opened while she scanned the surface of the swamp lake, Ethel honestly hoped as they went out they didn't meet anything. As they alternated between rowing and then pausing to let the momentum take them forward to not disturb any of the animals, especially hippos who were incredibly territorial and they reacted badly whenever something blundered into their midst or threatened their young.

Occasionally they saw the water swell slightly and they saw the bony plates which ran down the length of crocodile tails thrash gently in the water in the distance, but so far none of the crocodiles seemed to be interested in the witches or their boat, making Ethel wonder if the magic of this place had something to do with it, that they only acted when they were close or something like that, but even if that were the case neither Mildred nor Ethel were keen to test the hypothesis.

Ethel cast a lookout over the water near the beach, and she could see gently rising and falling in the water as they foraged in the swamp water, the dark shapes of the hippos; they were so incredibly small at this distance, but she had seen the hippos in Jumanji. One of them was enough to block out half of a two-storey house.

They looked so different at this distance, but from where she was sitting Ethel honestly hoped they stayed where they were, but since Jumanji was so twisted she knew there could be one underneath, ready to flip them over as soon as they passed over. _Oh, please don't let my worst nightmare come true,_ Ethel thought to herself, before she mentally added to herself, _okay, so that's not my worst nightmare, but its close._

There was a jarring bump on the underside of the boat and the entire thing lifted up a few inches before coming back down. Instantly Mildred and Ethel stopped what they were doing and looked at each other in dread.

"What was that?" Bella's voice was so quiet it was barely audible, and she looked fearfully at the water.

But Mildred waved her to silence as she scanned the surface. She felt sick and her heart started to pound in her chest when she spotted the large air bubbles rising to the surface, and moving closer to the boat.

 _Oh no._

"Quick!" she screamed even though it was futile when the massive hippo appeared out of the water, its mouth wide open, displaying the jagged looking tusks. The hippo tried to upset the boat but with Ethel and Mildred both steering the boat away from the hippo, though they blundered into the path of another one of the enormous things, and it came dangerously close to tipping them over into the water.

 _These_ _ **things**_ _kill more people in Africa every year,_ Mildred reminded herself of something she had learnt about African animals, as she and Ethel managed to dodge out of the way of another hippo trying to capsize their boat, though she had no intention of letting the others know about that little fact.

Another hippo surfaced in front of them and another to the side, but the two older witches managed to steer past them and then they were free of any hippos, but the witches were still alert all the way to the shore. One hippo attacked and clamped down its jaws on the side of the boat and shook it a little bit, with the tusks scraping the hardwood hull of the boat. Miranda and Bella both screamed in panic when they saw the massive, grey-brown hide of the hippos head close up and personal, but aside from shaking the boat around and tipping it a little bit, the hippo didn't capsize the boat when it had the opportunity.

Instead, it just left.

"Why didn't they follow us?" Ethel asked in confusion as she looked around and in the distance, she could see the hippos foraging as if nothing had happened.

The elder Hallow didn't get it. They had been at the hippos

"I don't know," Mildred replied, not really paying much attention to the question as she was suddenly struck with the memories of all of those computer games she had played in her time as a kid.

"N-no, Aunt Ethel is right," Bella stuttered out in terror as if expecting another hippo to attack them again, "why didn't they come after us-?'

"Because they weren't going to kill us. They were a test," Mildred interrupted.

"What are you on about now, Mildred? Of course, they were trying to kill us-!"

"No. You are forgetting something; _we are inside a game._ And players cannot be killed by a game. When you are playing a computer game, there are dozens of levels that you move up. Jumanji is no different; we went from the outside of Jumanji to past that Barrier. From there we got the tokens, and we managed to collect all but one. Then we came up here and discovered we couldn't fly anymore. And then the hippos which didn't kill us when they had the chance, and now we have to get the tokens we've got up there," Mildred pointed up the hill where they saw the large stone cat head carved into the rock.

"You know what, Mildred might be right," Miranda whispered thoughtfully, "so many things have happened to us since we passed through the Barrier; we learnt about the tokens, saw how our spells broke down, and how the tokens only appeared whenever we went to a particular part either under our own power or because of something else."

"And if the games' like that then we've just passed another test," Bella said.

Ethel was silent as she looked around and as the only person in Jumanji who knew the elder Hallow better than anyone - Bella may have been a Hallow herself and she might have had better insight into what went on in a mind like that, but her experience with Ethel was limited - Mildred was the only person around who knew what was going on inside Ethel's brain.

The elder Hallow was sceptical at first at hearing about this latest quirk to Jumanji, but now she was listening to the rational explanations which fit the theory, Ethel was also becoming convinced. But Mildred could see Ethel was still having troubles accepting it. Ethel had never really had problems accepting they were in a game, a magical game, but the thirty years of living here without any sign of any of the conventional signs of their new reality _being_ a game, it was hard for Ethel's mind to comprehend although she accepted it.

In Ethel's mind, the game's hippos should have killed them, but they hadn't.

Mildred knew Ethel would accept Jumanji had levels like that, but this wasn't the time for them to continue thinking it through. Mildred sighed and looked at her friends. "Come on. Let's get out of here; they might not have killed us in the boat, but we're still too close to the water ."

The hill dominated the centre of this part of Jumanji, in fact, Mildred was convinced they were now _in the middle of Jumanji._

There was no way up. Mildred and Miranda both walked around looking for a way up while Bella and Ethel had gone around the other way. But Mildred and Miranda both looked for everything they could think of, a slope that could be climbed, a cave, but there was nothing any of the witches could use to reach the top.

Mildred and Miranda found Bella and Ethel standing where they'd left them. Judging from the visible mood on Ethel's face and the stricken expression on Bella's face, they'd had as much luck as they had.

"Nothing at all?" Mildred had to ask just to be sure.

Ethel rolled her eyes. "Do you think we'd still be here if that was true, Mildred Hubble?"

Mildred sighed, but she was pleased she had known Ethel for a long time in Jumanji to know the blonde's mood swings. Ethel was not angry with her, she was angry they hadn't had any luck getting to the top.

"Same here," Mildred said before the younger witches said anything about Ethel's mood. "We couldn't see any sign of a slope, nothing. The hill's just too steep."

Ethel nodded, "Yeah, we found the same thing."

"Another test," Miranda looked up and shook her head at the sheer _height_ of the hill. "I don't get it."

"Neither do we," Bella whispered. "How many more of these tests are there?"

"Let's hope there aren't that many left."

"Hold it, that about those," Ethel said and she walked towards the wall.

Mildred sighed as she followed Ethel with the others. "Where's she going to now?"

Ethel led them to the wall where a number of twisted vines were hanging down from the top of the hill. Mildred felt a sinking feeling in her chest as she realised what Ethel had in mind. "Oh no, Ethel, No!" she moaned as they walked to the wall that Miranda and Mildred had both passed; in truth, the true dark haired witches had considered using the vines, but they had dismissed them because they didn't feel comfortable with climbing up the wall using them. Seeing Miranda open her mouth, no doubt to tell Ethel it was not worth it, Mildred gently placed a hand on the younger witch's shoulder.

When Miranda turned to her questioningly Mildred shook her head, knowing it would do little good.

In the meantime, Bella shared Mildred's worries. "How can we climb up? What if they don't support our weight?"

Ethel jumped on one of the vines and tugged. It barely moved. "They seem strong enough to take our weight."

"Hold on, is that a cave?" Miranda whispered when she looked around when she realised Mildred had a point about Ethel if she did things like that.

"If you're trying to stop me," Ethel began, but Bella saw the opening.

"No, look there," the younger blonde said and walked to the wall.

Ethel looked and saw the cave. The opening itself was so narrow it was no wonder Mildred and Miranda, who had both been looking for something like a cave to get them out of Jumanji, hadn't found it. Miranda stepped into the opening; it was narrow, yeah, but it wasn't so narrow that she couldn't fit in.

It widened as she stepped inside and she instantly saw the torches in sconces on the wall. "It's okay, you can come in now," she called through the opening.

Cautiously the other witches squeezed their own way inside the opening and stepped into the cave. Mildred went to the torches and slowly and hesitantly lifted one-off and went rigid as if expecting the roof to suddenly come down on her head, but when nothing happening she sagged with relief.

A snide remark was on the tip of Ethel's tongue, but she held back; she and Mildred had spent so long here there were so many things which went wrong that did.

Mildred held up the torch and looked at the others. "Shall we?"

A thought occurred to Ethel. "Wait a minute," she began and everyone turned to face her. "What if we're being tested again and we should be going up the hill using those vines?"

Mildred sighed, but she had to concede Ethel might have a point. "Do you want to try to climb the hill using the vines?" she asked.

"Not really, but if this is a test and we blow it then we've lost the chance of leaving Jumanji forever."

"At the same time this cave could be the one we should be using," Mildred pointed out thoughtfully. "How about you take one of these two, and I'll take the other?"

Both Miranda and Bella looked worried at the thought of being separated. They wanted to escape, but they didn't really want to separate and nearly get themselves killed. Looking between the two elder witches, Bella hesitantly stepped forwards and looked expectantly at her aunt.

"Are you sure?" Ethel asked her niece, wanting Bella to be completely sure. Miranda looked at her friend with worry while Mildred looked at the younger blonde curiously.

Bella nodded, too afraid to speak. She looked like she didn't want to do it, but it seemed to be because she didn't want anything to happen in the caves.

Ethel sighed when she saw the fear and turned to look at Mildred. "I'll see you later," Ethel said, hoping not to sound too emotional when she bid farewell, leading Bella out of the cave.

"See you," Mildred said, hoping that the blonde succeeded. She also hoped this wasn't one of the games' sick tests. When the two blondes were out of sight, Mildred sighed and looked at Miranda. "Come on, Miranda."

The two dark-haired witches walked through the cave. It seemed to move upwards, leading to the top of the hill. As they headed upwards, Mildred started to wonder if perhaps this was too easy. The cave was wide enough for both her and Miranda to walk through, but it seemed to be leading upwards. But at the same time, Mildred also wondered if she was perhaps thinking a bit _too much_ about the recent coincidences they had experienced recently since they had broken through the Barrier and come this far.

She didn't believe in conspiracy theories, even though she had been suspicious about the so-called _trial_ Cackle and Hardbroom had arranged for her in order to attend Cackles, it was so long ago Mildred was even _surprised she even remembered it;_ the scholarship offer from Pippa Pentangle, although what the glamorous pink-loving witch got out of it Mildred still wasn't sure.

But _Jumanji…_

Ever since she had realised the game was alive, so many things had started to make sense in Mildred's mind, and she was certain it had occurred to the others as well. The fact their magic didn't work, the broomsticks only working for a brief time before they were only good for firewood, how everything conjured on the other side of the Barrier just seemed to fall apart, the tokens appearing in places where they were as if they were rewards and the hippo attack which, if they were still in the real world, should have killed them all.

And now the debate about this cave and the vines….

"Oh, I hope after this, we find a way out of Jumanji," she said out loud, but thankfully her voice was still too low for Miranda to really hear what she was saying.

"Sorry, what did you just say, Mildred?" Miranda asked.

Cursing herself for opening her mouth, Mildred turned her head slightly. "Nothing."

"Do you think Ethel and Bella will be okay?" Miranda looked at the elder witch while she changed the topic onto something she wanted to speak about, although the expression on the younger witch's face told Mildred she was trying to assuage her fears. Mildred couldn't blame her; they had gotten close to the two younger girls, and vice versa, so it made sense for her to be worried for the others (Mildred had to shut up the little voice inside her head which said she was caring only because she didn't want their only chance to escape Jumanji being taken from them; Mildred knew it wasn't that simple, and besides Ethel was a tough nut. She wouldn't let anything happen unless it was out of her control).

"I think so," Mildred did her best to smile at the younger witch reassuringly even though she was worried as well, "Ethel's good at climbing, and I think she's got a way of getting Bella up those vines."

She only hoped Bella wasn't as spooked by heights as she was.

The younger Hallow shared some traits with Sybil, but Mildred knew the two were brave when they needed to be.

"What about you?"

Mildred frowned at Miranda. "Excuse me?"

"What about you, I mean with climbing?"

"I'll do it if I've got no choice," Mildred replied now she understood the question. "But the last time I climbed up some vines, I nearly got spooked by a flock of birds. I nearly lost my grip, but I don't think the same thing will happen here. Now come on, we need to get out of here."

Silently they went on their way.

* * *

Fortunately, nothing bad happened when they got through the caves. The cave went all the way to the top of the hill without any trouble although Mildred stopped each time they heard any sound, no matter how small it was. Miranda suspected Mildred was just being paranoid, but she kept her thoughts to herself since Mildred and Ethel had probably both had bad experiences in caves.

To their relief, they found Ethel and Bella on the top of the hill as well, both unharmed and well, though judging by Bella's expression the younger blonde probably wouldn't _do that_ again anytime soon.

"How was the cave?" Bella asked Miranda, shaking a little from nerves, it was obvious it had been a bad experience.

"Not bad," Miranda studied the blonde. "Are you okay?"

"I think so."

Mildred looked at Ethel, making sure the question was obvious to the elder blonde. _How was it really?_

Ethel just replied with a nod, meaning _it was okay._

"Hey, is that what I think it is?" Bella asked, her voice more confident than before now her feet were back on flatter ground. The others turned and looked around to where the younger blonde witch was pointing. Mildred's eyes widened in surprise when she saw the Tiger's Eye. It was an ornately carved piece of emerald about the size of Mildred's fist.

"Jumanji's idea of a reward for getting this far?" Mildred looked at the others.

"Who cares?" Ethel walked over to the gem and gently knelt, and picked it up.

Ethel picked up the gem, noticing its weight and mentally calculated it weighed as much as one of the large books found in the Hallow family library, but as she picked up the gem there was a rumbling sound.

"What was that?" Miranda asked fearfully, looking around as the rumbling grew worse.

"I don't know," Ethel replied as she stood up, but the rumbling grew worse as she stood at her full height.

"Another stampede?"

"Up here?" Miranda countered sarcastically.

"No, it's not a stampede," Mildred whispered as she looked out at the rest of Jumanji, feeling the _ground under her feet_ beginning to shake. "Oh no. Nonono! Run, run to the head! It's an _earthquake!"_

Miranda and Bella screamed in panic as they ran with Mildred and Ethel towards the massive stone cat's head, but the ground rumbled even more as the earthquake seemed to gain strength as they ran towards the head. The ground started to split as they ran towards the head, the chasm created by the split growing deeper and deeper and deeper. The group of witches suddenly felt the ground becoming so unsteady when it shook so badly they had trouble standing, but they were somehow able to stay on their feet before the ground.

Miranda cried in shock as she suddenly collapsed to the ground as the split in the ground somehow grew wider and the tremors made it impossible to stand upright.

Ethel collapsed nearby, wincing at the impact.

"Is it usually this bad?" Miranda looked at Ethel, having to shout her question at her.

"Yes, but they're quite rare, thank Merlin."

Miranda was just getting up when she heard Bella and Mildred scream as they collapsed to the ground, Bella falling on top of Mildred, but the elder witch managed to get up, helping Bella up in turn. Miranda and Bella did the same, and they kept on running towards the cat's head while the earthquake reached its peak.

It seemed to take _forever_ for the four witches to reach the Cat's head, and even then they were very lucky. The larger split was splitting itself up as well, creating smaller chasms like the branches of a river, only these branches went right through the ground all the way down.

The earthquake died down when they finally reached the Cat's Head, but by then the damage was done. There was a massive chasm that seemed to have split the whole of the hill in half though none of the witches was interested in seeing if it had split the jungle in two.

There was a path made of rough stone bricks that led around the head and it became visible as the witches approached it, hoping that if they went around it they could find a way out. They ran around the carved stone head until they came to the face. They had just placed the Tiger's Eye and the Elephant's Head into the mouth where there were small carved recesses for them, and they were just about to fit in the Leopard's Head when they stopped.

"DON'T MOVE!" a familiar voice yelled out, and the witches stopped when a loud gunshot rang out, echoing throughout the plateau and ricocheted off the stone. The witches stopped and turned.

Standing near the mouth of the Cat's Head though they didn't know where he had been hiding was Van Pelt who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. The hunter had his rifle aimed straight at all of the witches. Van Pelt made a show of reloading his gun with a fresh bullet, and he grinned at them sadistically, laughing softly as he took in the sight of the witches around the mouth.

"What's the point, Van Pelt?" Ethel said, not really surprised by this latest turn of events since they knew Van Pelt must have gotten quite far.

"Oh, I'm just having fun," the hunter replied, still smirking at them as he stayed where he was.

Ethel raised an eyebrow, knowing the hunter was serious since he took a perverse joy in hunting them down across the whole of the jungle. She didn't bother responding to his statement, nor did she bother to ask him to just let them go. She knew he wouldn't listen anyway, so there was not much point.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

But the hunter's attention was diverted when he saw the collection of tokens inside the mouth. "Ah, I see you've collected the tokens," he commented. "Well, there wasn't much of a challenge there."

"You mean they would have appeared no matter where we were?" Miranda didn't sound surprised.

"Oh yes," the hunter replied. "Now you are near the end of the game, I've got you where I want you. I won't let you go as the others left me, left _here,"_ he hissed the last word, clearly indicating the jungle. "They all did. But you will not."

Ethel only just stopped herself from showing any reaction when she saw Mildred who had managed to sneak away and grab hold of a rock and was now perched on the top of the head, and was getting closer and closer to the hunter. She knew if she gave the game away by stiffening up the hunter would notice and shoot Mildred.

Van Pelt grinned at them - Ethel did wonder if the hunter was even aware Mildred was not there, but she could see the glazed look in his eyes and guessed he probably had much more on his mind and wasn't as alert as he normally was - and he raised the rifle. "Any last words?"

That was enough for Mildred. She threw the rock towards Van Pelt, and it smacked into the helmet the hunter wore. The hunter yelped in shock and the impact sent him stumbling around the narrow pathway. He saw Mildred just as he was starting to fall down the hill from where they were standing, and he raised his gun and fired it.

"MILDRED!" Ethel screamed as she saw Mildred take the bullet in the chest before he plummeted down the hill, screaming all the way. None of the witches bothered to see him land on the ground below. The blonde instinctively took a step forward to get to Mildred, but Miranda stopped her.

"No, Ethel!" the younger witch said in a panic.

"Put the Leopard's Head into the Mouth," Bella was suddenly at her aunt's elbow, looking up into the elder Hallows' eyes with her own widened with fear and sympathy. "End the game."

Ethel lifted the Leopard's head and her hands shook. With this thing in the mouth, completing the set, they could get out of Jumanji forever. But Ethel truly didn't know what would happen if she did it, she didn't know what would happen to all of them.

She didn't know if Mildred was going to recover.

At the same time, she couldn't condemn either Miranda or Bella to this nightmare anymore. She wondered why they were making her do this, and realised they either didn't want to fight over winning over the game, or they simply didn't care. Ethel didn't care about the reasons. She took the Leopard's Head and shoved it into the mouth and stepped back, waiting expectantly.

Nothing happened.

Ethel glared at the tokens angrily, wondering what was happening now. She wondered if this was just another one of the sick jokes Jumanji had started to play on them since they had passed through the Barrier.

"Hold it. Call out its name! Everyone," Bella shouted before raising her voice, "JUMANJI!"

"JUMANJI!" Miranda took up the chant.

" _ **JUMANJI!"**_ Ethel screamed and her voice echoed through the mouth.

Everything went white….

* * *

The intelligence of Jumanji was furious. It was angry that the witches had succeeded, but unlike Van Pelt, who didn't seem to know when to not speak, the game had learnt over the centuries it had existed, not to underestimate its players. Van Pelt should have scared them off of the hill and chased them away across the swamp. The game had been torn between breaking its own rules which were a part of itself and was thus the very fabric of its being and finding a way to stop them from arriving on the beach on the other side of the swamp and just letting them play the game out.

Jumanji was tempted, really tempted, to alter Van Pelt's character, and now the reality of Jumanji was being changed it had collapsed thanks to the call of its name. Now the game would enter a consolidation stage where it would feast on the magical energy it had absorbed, and use it to grow. The intelligence decided to use the time it now had to its advantage. Now it would grow and change itself.

The next time it was played, the intelligence would show a different side to itself.

Yes, much of the setting would be identical. Only the reality the witches and all those who had played the game for the last few hundred years would be almost unrecognisable.

It had hoped to change itself for a long time anyway and now it had the chance of altering itself using the magic drawn off from the witches playing it, but now they were won. The game had no alternative but to let them go. It could not go against the rules which were threaded throughout its nature, even if it wanted to. It had to let them go, but next time things would be different.

No more would Jumanji accept only a measly four players, the next time it would completely change itself for the next round.

Jumanji was nothing if not patient; the game had no idea how long it would take before it was ready to be played again. It had more than enough magic to ingest on, it had grown. It could wait for a century if it needed to.

Witches and wizards were finite, the game of Jumanji was infinite.

* * *

Ethel groaned as she woke up on a ground made of stone but she didn't think anything of it, but as she lifted her head and looked around her eyes widened.

She wasn't inside a cave…

She…

She was in the storeroom where she and Mildred had originally played the game. She looked around feverishly as she felt her arms and legs becoming stronger, and she saw the game lying between her and-

"Mildred!" Ethel crawled over to her friend as she saw Mildred's back turned so she couldn't see the brunettes' face. Ethel turned her over and found herself looking at Mildred's thirteen-year-old self.

Ethel gaped when she saw that face, the same face she had seen grow and become older, more mature. The face she was used to seeing was usually always covered with cuts and bruises from their long imprisonment in Jumanji, but now Mildred's face was clean, smooth, and young and it hadn't yet felt ageing.

"Mildred," she said, shaking the girl gently before she felt for Mildred's pulse desperately. Mildred was alive. "Mildred!"

Mildred groaned. "Alright, I'm awake!"

Ethel desperately helped the brunette up. "What do you remember?"

"Apart from getting shot, seeing Van Pelt fall down the hill, and everything going white while everyone screams out the games' name, everything," Mildred replied, looking up into Ethel's eyes.

Ethel smirked when the brunette's eyes widened with shock. "Ethel… you…you look _young."_

Ethel chuckled. _Still lost for words… "_ So do you. I think Jumanji sent us back to the moment where we played the game," she said, unable to resist running a hand down her _blessedly_ smooth and clean hair. It had been years since their hair had been clean.

 _Back to the moment where we played the game…_

She had spent the last thirty years in Jumanji wishing she had never even looked at the game which had drawn them into itself, pushing them through one mess after another while it played with them. But to be sent back to the moment where they had just begun _playing…_

She was reminded of the Mists of Time, and how she had passed through them and saw the different alternative timelines which reminded her of a Doctor Who story before she returned to the present.

While Mildred was thinking about what had happened, Ethel was looking around. "Where's Miranda and Bella?"

Mildred looked up into Ethel's face in bewilderment as she quickly remembered the date. "Ethel," she said gently, "they haven't been born yet."

Ethel's face looked stricken as she realised it was the truth, but Mildred stood up slowly with the blondes' help. Together they looked down at the game darkly. "What are we going to do with it?" Mildred asked her friend, unable to believe something so harmless looking was so deadly.

"Get rid of it!" Ethel spat, amazed Mildred even needed to ask.

Mildred turned to her. "We can't. This thing is alive," she reminded Ethel. "If we bury it or something like that, it will just come back. It will start all over again. I don't want that to happen, I don't want others to go through what we have."

Ethel couldn't say anything because she knew Mildred had a point. She looked down again at the game thoughtfully for a second before a smile spread across her face. "The Morgana Vaults."

"The what Vaults?"

"The Morgana Vaults," Ethel explained patiently, "they're a magical research facility. Centuries ago, Morgana Le Fay founded the creation of the vaults because she and Merlin had stumbled across an ancient form of magic, far older than either of them, and it nearly killed them. I can't remember the details, but Morgana was fascinated by ancient magical lore. She travelled around the world whenever she and Merlin were not fighting one another. And she collected scrolls, old books, and magical artefacts. There's a library and a collection belonging to her where scholars can study everything she collected. But she also discovered some dangerous magical items and, with Merlin's help, founded the Morgana Vaults. Merlin allowed the name because he barely had anything to do with it despite his interest. Together they wrote into the code that anything dangerous was to go into the vaults for study and to be locked up if necessary. Again, there's a story there, a legend, but it's not important right now."

Mildred was silent as she remembered the Area 51 conspiracy myth where the US government had, reportedly, sealed off an alien flying saucer and the remains of a dead alien. She didn't bother commenting on the similarities because it wasn't important, but she understood the concept. "I see, so what do we do?" she asked. "I can't see either HB or Cackle taking this thing to a vault."

"They can't. We have to call the Great Wizard. He's the only person who can take anything to the vaults as part of his responsibility." Ethel looked down at the game before looking back up at Mildred and looked around before she realised it was still dark.

Mildred followed her gaze. "Can we do it now?" she asked.

Ethel nodded. "I can send word to him using the mirror card. I don't know if he will be working or not at this hour, but we can leave a message."

Mildred privately wondered about the marvels of the magical world. It wasn't everyday you learnt the mirrors could take messages like a conventional answering phone.

* * *

It didn't take long before Mildred and Ethel both found the mirror card for the Great Wizard. After spending so long dealing with the woman's complacent manner, Mildred had gained some insight into the places where Miss Cackle might keep things like the mirror card for the Great Wizard, so it didn't take long to find before they both went to the mirror room while Ethel held onto the game.

Mildred blew out a breath as she walked into the room, wishing she could speak to her mother even if it were likely Julie was working at the hospital, but she knew she had to get this done before they did anything else. And judging from Ethel's expression and the way she kept glancing at the door of the room, she wished she could go to her sisters.

Mildred held up the card and hoped the Great Wizard was awake. When the image coalesced and the Great Wizards face appeared in the mirror, Mildred's heart sank when she saw his expression. She and the Great Wizard had a very…tempestuous relationship, and although she genuinely did not know if he liked her not, she liked to think they had some kind of understanding.

"Miss Hubble," the Great Wizard's voice was clipped with displeasure as he saw who it was who was calling him, and his eyes narrowed slightly with curiosity when he saw Ethel behind her. "Miss Hallow. Do you know what time it is?"

In Mildred's mind, the time was irrelevant. "I'm sorry, Your Greatness," she replied.

"What do you want, girl?"

Mildred winced at the volume. "We have something for you to take to the Morgana Vaults," she got out.

The Great Wizard went silent with shock. Mildred had to suppress a giggle when she saw something more delightful than seeing Miss Hardbroom in a tutu. The wizard's mouth moved, mouthing _the Morgana Vaults_ a few times before he managed to get his question out, though she guessed he was surprised she even knew about them.

This was what she disliked about the magical world; everyone was so willing to believe that because she came from a non-magical background even though she had magical ancestry, they didn't realise she had a thirst for knowledge in the culture. It was crazy. "The Morgana Vaults? How do you know about them?"

"Ethel told me. It's the only place we can think of to get this thing out of our lives," Mildred said holding up the game with Ethel.

The reaction from the Great Wizard was something they did not expect.

The Great Wizard actually reared back in terror at the game after he stared at it with a wide-eyed look. "Keep that thing away from me!" he cried, the volume and the emotion startling both witches.

Mildred and Ethel hastily shoved the game out of sight. "You know of Jumanji?"

"Don't even mention that name!" the wizard snapped.

Mildred gaped at him. She had seen dozens of crazy reactions from magical people during the last thirty-two years ( _two years,_ she corrected herself: she was back at Cackles, she had to get the timing right), but this was off. Even for the Great Wizard.

And then something occurred to her.

"You've played it, haven't you?" Mildred gasped, seeing out of the corner of her eye Ethel stared at her with the same realisation before the blonde looked at the wizard.

The Great Wizard looked away from the young witch, confirming Mildred's guess.

"You have!" Mildred whispered. "When? What happened?"

The Great Wizard sighed. "It was a long time ago," he said in a reminiscent manner. "I was a young wizard then, top of my class," he smiled but then he looked solemn. "My friend and I, Peter, we discovered the game after we heard it play the drums. I take it the same thing happened to you?"

Mildred and Ethel both nodded. "Yes. That's why the game is dangerous. It has to be locked up. What did you do with the game after you discovered it?"

The Great Wizard sighed again. "Peter and I wrapped it up and weighted it down before we threw it into the sea. It should still be there. How did it get out?"

"We don't know," Mildred looked down into the corner where the game was before she lifted her eyes again. "Your Greatness - it has to be locked up. If we throw it away, it will just come back."

"Yes, you're right," the Great Wizard replied before he looked up seriously but compassionately. "How…how long were you both inside the game?"

Mildred licked her lips, but it was Ethel who answered. "Thirty years."

The Great Wizard winced and he looked away for a moment before he looked back at the younger witches and tried his best to smile. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to take the game to the vaults. I'll be there tomorrow. Goodnight, you two."

Mildred and Ethel looked at each other when the wizard broke the connection and they both left the room, numb with shock over what they had just learnt.

They both knew the game had been played in the past, but the knowledge the _Great Wizard_ had been one of the games many victims was shocking.


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer - The Worst Witch and Jumanji belong to their respective owners, so I'm not making anything out of them.

Feedback would be lovely, thanks.

A/N - I'd wanted to finish this story before the end of the month so then I have the time from now until Christmas where I could concentrate on other matters and stories.

Enjoy.

* * *

The Curse of Jumanji.

The next morning, Mildred got out of bed disgruntled; after spending so many years leaning against trees or lying on piles of sliced grass she and Ethel had collected to sleep on, she was simply not used to sleeping in a comfortable bed. Another thing that was unsettling was virtual silence. Jumanji as an environment never truly slept. There were cries of birds that went through you like a razor-sharp knife, the trumpeting cries of elephants, and the sounds of monkeys in the trees themselves.

The silence had been so unnerving all of Mildred's instincts which had been honed for thirty years had been screaming to her there was trouble, so she hadn't really gotten much sleep. Mildred had no idea how Ethel had slept, but she was going to find out. She took a look out of the window and saw the first stirrings of dawn outside, and she prepared herself to get dressed, looking at her uniform and her school things in a detached, disbelieving manner; she had spent the last three decades of her life inside Jumanji with more on her mind than broomstick flying and potions, and having to put up with stupid punishments for things beyond her control, so she hadn't really given any real thought about her magical education in that other world.

But now she was back…

She and Ethel would be expected to have lived as if nothing had happened. In a way, nothing had happened. She and Ethel had not run away, as had been the general consensus of that other timeline (she wasn't sure what the best term to refer to the world Bella and Miranda had come from, so she wasn't sure if what the two girls came from was a universe or a timeline, though she was sure it was an alternate timeline because she and Ethel had been sent back in time to when they had been younger), and the search Miranda and Bella had described in great detail had never taken place.

For a moment Mildred idly wondered to herself if Jumanji also fed on the timelines it created, and she guessed it did, but she pushed it out of her mind while she focused on other things while she prepared to get dressed; it wasn't time for the other girls to get out of bed, but many of the students were early risers and they would be bright and early and dressed for breakfast and the first lessons of the day.

It felt weird putting on her Cackles school uniform again; in Jumanji, the tight uniforms had made running virtually impossible and the climate of Jumanji had been so unforgiving it had been a wonder neither she nor Ethel had died of dehydration in their first week before they had exchanged their old uniforms for something better.

Mildred wondered how the Great Wizard had coped with finding himself back in the real world after spending so many years with his friend in Jumanji, and how long it had been before he had recovered enough to live his life normally once more. Thinking about it, Mildred felt that was the best news imaginable since it proved she and Ethel would eventually get their lives back on track.

As she got ready, Mildred checked on the game. She and Ethel had talked about who was going to look after it, and unfortunately she had drawn the short straw.

She checked under the covers of her bed and saw the familiar smooth dark wood of the outer box of the game. Mildred looked down at it thoughtfully for a moment. It still amazed her that something so _evil_ was locked away in something that appeared to be outwardly so normal, so innocent.

 _Beauty is only skin deep,_ Mildred thought to herself as she looked away from the game, _and then there's that expression; Never Judge a book by its cover. Truth is, everyone in this school knows everything can be dangerous. It doesn't matter if it's innocent-looking or not._

A knock came from the door, and Mildred looked away from the game.

"Yes?" Mildred called as she turned on the spot.

The door opened and Ethel stepped in, looking as neat as she usually did, though there was an uncertainty in the blonde girl's manner as she stepped into the room, and Mildred watched as her eyes darted all over the place tensely as though she wondered if the room was real or a trick somehow, and whether there was a threat nearby.

Mildred knew how she felt. She had been so overwhelmed when she had woken up earlier as if the whole thing was some hideous dream or nightmare, so she knew where Ethel was coming from.

Ethel focused on Mildred. "Where do we stand?" she asked.

Mildred sighed. She should have expected that question, though truthfully it hadn't occurred to her Ethel might be keen to renew their old 'feud' the day after everything had gone back to normal in their lives. "I still want us to be friends, but why do you ask?"

This time it was Ethel's turn to sigh and she looked away for a moment, deep in thought, before she turned back to look at Mildred. "I want us to be friends as well, but I wanted to see how everything was. I mean, we are back, and everyone expects us to be enemies."

"I thought we were over this."

"We are," Ethel replied with a reassuring smile, though it soon became more solemn. "But do you think we'll be allowed to be friends?"

In Jumanji, it had taken the two girls a while to become friendly. At first, it had merely been a relationship of necessity, but after saving one another about a dozen times, they had worked through their disagreements in the past. Mildred could understand Ethel's points and her uncertainty but she hadn't expected them to surface like this. But Mildred was genuinely worried about Ethel's last question; from the sounds of it, the pair of them were expected to fight for all eternity, hating one another for something that happened in their childhoods, until it spilt over into their adult lives.

"What makes you ask that?" Mildred asked, genuinely surprised, but what worried her the most and concerned her the most was if the pair of them even _tried_ to be friends then others would step in and interfere.

Ethel looked into her eyes, looking sad and scared. "Maud, Enid, Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom," she listed. "What if they poke their noses into our friendship, drive us apart? Your friends hate me, they've never hidden it from me; but we're older mentally than all of the students, and we became friends because of where we were, and we both had a great common ground between us to start us off. I just don't want them to interfere."

Mildred was silent as she listened to this outpouring. As much as she would love to disagree, she knew Ethel had a good point. She had more or less grown out of her naive attitude thanks to being tricked dozens of times by Van Pelt, and some of the people like him in Jumanji. Thanks to being mentally older than Maud and Enid, Mildred wasn't going to let their immature attitudes if they surfaced bother her too much. But Maud and Enid were small fry compared to Van Pelt and the others.

"We won't let it happen," she said simply. "Look, as far as I am concerned we're friends, and we'll be friends for a long time. And besides, Cackle and Hardbroom have both wanted us to stop fighting for a long time. If they can't handle it, then fine. Maud and Enid aren't five years old, and I am not going to lose hope like I did when Maud threw that temper tantrum back in the first year when Enid came around; if it comes down to that with them both, I will simply shrug my shoulders. We might be friends, but I won't stand for it, and if they don't like it…It's not our problem. The fact is we are both forty-two years old mentally, we've worked out our differences, we've grown as people even if our bodies have returned to how they are."

Ethel nodded as she saw Mildred's point. "I just don't want to break off a friendship."

"I hope it doesn't come down to that, Ethel," Mildred went on, "but if we're confronted about it, we can say we've had a long talk and decided that since the teachers aren't going to get involved, we decided to talk. That's not quite a lie, is it? And if the Great Wizard comes out about Jumanji's existence, which I hope he does, we can say we became friends while we were in that hell."

Ethel cocked her head thoughtfully. "You think he will tell the magical world about Jumanji?"

"I hope so," Mildred replied. "I'll bring it up with him when he comes."

"I wonder how he's going to do it, tell the teachers why he's here. He has to speak to Cackle and Hardbroom," Ethel commented.

Mildred shrugged. Truthfully she didn't really care; as long as the game ended up in the Morgana vaults, and stayed there, she didn't really care what happened to it or how the Wizard spun it. All she wanted was for her and Ethel's lives to get back to normal, and at the same time she wanted to be reunited with her mother.

But Ethel's concerns about Maud and Enid did continue to worry her.

Ethel was right, the two girls did hate the blonde witch, but if they bothered her then Mildred would not stand for it. She had made the mistake of letting Maud get out of hand when Enid came to the school simply because she couldn't stand the thought of not having a best friend. She was not going to repeat it.

The door opened and Maud came in. She stopped in surprise when she noted Mildred was already fully dressed and ready for school, but she was even more surprised when she saw Ethel standing there.

Mildred inwardly frowned when she saw the bespectacled girl's eyes narrow when she suddenly saw Ethel, and she started to lose her temper when she saw the way Ethel seemed to have noticed it as well. The narrow look in Maud's eyes lifted slightly as she turned to Mildred. "Oh, you're up," she said, completely ignorant of the growing anger in Mildred's soul. "What's going on?"

Mildred had to take a deep breath and she nodded at the uncertain form of Ethel. "We've called a truce," she said, ignoring Ethel's askance look; she knew how it sounded, but she couldn't think of anything else to say since it was too sudden to say they were friends now without getting into the story of Jumanji.

"A truce?" Maud repeated.

Mildred raised an eyebrow at the volume, but she nodded while she tried to hide her apprehension. She didn't like Maud's reaction mostly because her friend for some reason, but she hoped Maud was mature enough to accept the new twist in her relationship with Ethel.

"But…how? When did this happen?"

Mildred looked at Ethel and then back at Maud, hoping for inspiration to put this into words.

"Mildred and I decided we'd had enough of the fighting, although we still like the idea of having arguments here and there on occasion," Ethel explained for the pair of them when she saw Mildred was thinking over what to say, adding the last part with a smile hoping to put Maud at ease.

It didn't work.

Maud was looking at her with distaste.

Ethel swallowed and looked at Mildred worriedly, afraid she'd just blown it. But the brunette wasn't bothered by what was in Maud's mind.

"Maud," Mildred said, hoping to get through into the bespectacled girl's mind with logic, knowing Maud thrived on things being told and explained to her in a logical and rationally mature way. If she didn't want to hear it or even want to accept the new reality then she would be truly disappointed in her friend. "This _feud_ as Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom have stupidly called it has gone on long enough," she said slowly as she chose her words to make them as diplomatic as possible while she hoped Maud had learnt from her mistakes when Enid had first arrived, "and we've had more than enough of fighting. What, does everyone expect me and Ethel to continue fighting all throughout our remaining years here? Through college? Are we expected to ruin our own _weddings?_ Teach our own _children_ to hate one another, using them as _weapons_ in a war that started because Ethel thought you and I had conspired to get her kicked out of Cackles before the year had even started, _manipulating them_ all the way so then they hate each other instinctively?"

Maud was silent, but the look in her eyes were conflicted. Mildred looked at her expression closely, and wondered if the answer was yes, and if it was then she would be truly disappointed.

"I don't want that to happen, Maud," she went on slowly to see just where she stood with everyone on this topic. "I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of us lashing out at one another, and I'm also tired because the teachers refuse to truly do anything that would make us friendlier in the long term instead of making us see what we've got in common.

"When Ethel started on me, I just thought she was yet another bully in the long sad history of bullies. I hated her for everything she said to me, but I saw at the same time she wasn't that simple," Mildred said.

"Excuse me, but what am I, chopped liver?" Ethel asked pointedly.

"Sorry."

"Hold on, you really think you can trust her, especially after everything she's done?" Maud interrupted, looking incredulously between Mildred and Ethel, looking like she had dropped into an alternate reality much like the one Mildred had seen when she had come back from the time where Agatha and Ada Cackle had split up as siblings.

Mildred and Ethel shared a look. Both of them weren't surprised by the unspoken point Maud had just brought up, especially since it brought out memories Ethel had worked very hard to exorcise. But both of them were amazed Maud was even fighting them on something like this, and it showed the brunette and blonde witches Cackles was not a great place where maturity won out.

"Maud, what happened with Esmerelda happened a long time ago," Mildred said while Ethel watched on, knowing if she said anything else it would just spell the fire and make it worse. "Ethel's not likely to do it again, and besides why are you being like this?"

"After everything that she's done-!"

"First off," Mildred's voice cracked like one of Van Pelt's hunting rifles, the tone of her voice instantly shutting Maud up as she became angrier, "if you're just going to use what Ethel did wrong in the past to back up your arguments, don't; she made a mistake with Agatha when she gave Esmerelda's powers over to her on a plate, and then next year when she used the Founding Stone… it wouldn't have been necessary if her idiot parents had found a solution."

Maud folded her arms and glared at Mildred, but after spending thirty years of her life trapped in Jumanji with a young woman who spent most of her life glaring at others Mildred wasn't intimidated. "Mildred, Agatha had to give Esmerelda her powers back-," she said in a self-righteous way as if that matter was settled.

"You really believe that?" Mildred snapped, fed up with the narrow-mindedness of her friend. Maud took a step back in shock when she heard Mildred's tone, but Mildred didn't give up. "What, like you did when _Gullet_ was after my blood, and you kept telling me to study, blissfully ignorant of the fact I _went through her lessons and I studied like crazy_ only it wasn't bloody appreciated. If I had a sister, whom I hurt badly, I would go out of my way to make amends. I wouldn't just sit on my laurels like Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom did, who both ignored the fact Esmerelda was not here and didn't seem to truly care about what she was going through. I had _Esmerelda in this very room,_ Maud. She was terrified of living in the non-magical world. I spent twenty minutes explaining to her how things worked in the non-magical world, and she had trouble taking it in."

"What did she want to know?" Ethel asked curiously, the look in her eyes making it clear to Mildred this was a painful topic.

"She had already spent some time in the non-magical world, but there were some things she didn't understand. She had gone in as an observer from what she told me so then she wouldn't stand out," Mildred replied solemnly as she remembered how scared and resigned Esmerelda had been because of her sister's mistake. "But she had problems understanding how mobile phones and computers worked, and even then she had problems taking it in because I'm used to computers and the internet, and I had problems explaining it."

Ethel looked down. She was feeling that same guilt in her soul over what she had done to her own sister. Even in Jumanji, there had been moments where she had often been overwhelmed by her stupidity. One of the only good things about the thirty years she had spent in that horrible living reality where the magic from her, Mildred, and the girls had been fed on by the entity itself as she had grown up, and seen how futile it was trying to be someone she wasn't. But that didn't mean there weren't moments she didn't feel regret over what she had done.

Fortunately, at that moment, Miss Hardbroom's voice rang through the school. "All students to the Great Hall immediately."

Mildred looked at Ethel. "It's time," she said.

"Yeah, I think it is," the brunette replied, and she walked over to the bed and pulled out the wooden board game.

"Hold on," Maud looked at the game surprised. "What's going on?"

Mildred opened her mouth automatically to reply to Maud, but she closed it when she realised nothing she would say would make any difference. Neither she nor Ethel had any hard proof of what had happened to them, but Mildred had to hope the Great Wizard had something in mind for this. What surprised her the most was they had been summoned to the Great Hall, and it made the two girls wonder if the Wizard was going to publicly announce the presence of Jumanji. Mildred hoped so, it might go a long way to stopping anybody else from getting trapped in there.

"It's….complicated, Maud," Mildred said, hoping her vague and unhelpful answer didn't make Maud annoyed anymore than she was now.

"How is it complicated?" Maud asked as the trio walked through the corridors and mingled with the rest of the students as they headed for the hall.

Mildred closed her eyes as she tried to think of something to say, but the teachers came out and silenced them at once before ushering them into the school. The moment Mildred and Ethel entered they saw the tall, blue-silver robed form of the Great Wizard, and judging from the expressions Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom were wearing they were surprised by the presence of the most powerful wizard in the world.

Mildred shared a look with Ethel, and she showed the blonde witch her crossed fingers with her free hand while she held onto the game before they sat down, ignoring the looks she was garnering from Enid, who was sitting in the next row along.

The moment the students were seated, the Great Wizard didn't waste any time.

"Mildred Hubble, Ethel Hallow, please come here," he said without preamble.

Mildred and Ethel shared a look before they stood up while the rest of the student body looked at each other curiously and chatted openly with one another, all of them wondering if the duo were going to get expelled. Personally Mildred was relieved the Great Wizard understood the dangers of the game only too well and judging from his expression he just wanted to get this mess over and done with.

Miss Hardbroom quickly saw the game tucked neatly underneath Mildred's arm. "Mildred Hubble, what is that?" the dark potions mistress demanded.

Mildred opened her mouth, but the Wizard got there first. " _That_ is the reason I am, Miss Hardbroom," he explained briefly, casting his eyes on the game with a dark expression.

"I don't understand-."

"You will in a moment, Miss Hardbroom. You _all_ will," the Great Wizard promised while he pointed a finger at the game and gestured for it to be placed onto the table.

Mildred was only too happy to oblige.

The students started chatting when they saw the battered and ancient wooden board game, all of them wondering why the Great Wizard was bothering with a board game.

"Wait a moment," Mr Rowan-Webb was on his feet, looking at the game questioningly. "I bought that game. I wondered what had happened to it."

"You bought it, Algernon?" the Great Wizard asked in surprise while Mildred and Ethel glanced at each other. "Where from?"

"From a vendor," the only other wizard in the school replied, looking from the game to the two girls and back to the Great Wizard, clearly wondering what was going on. "He said he and his wife had tried to play it, but it wasn't exciting. He also said there wasn't any magic. But he said he got…nervous just looking at it. Myself and Miss Bat tried to play it, but nothing happened. After that it just…vanished."

The Great Wizard sighed. "You were luckier, at least compared to others. This _thing_ is beyond dangerous."

With that, the Great Wizard took out a crystal bottle which looked familiar.

"The Mists of Time?" Mildred looked questioningly at the Great Wizard as she remembered that day, such a long time ago relatively speaking, when Mrs Hallow had tried to get Miss Cackle thrown out, and Miss Pentangle and Miss Hardbroom had used the Mists fragment to show the Great Wizard the truth of the petition.

"With a few modifications," the Great Wizard replied. "Now, you and Ethel, please stand still and close your eyes, and hold each other's hand to form the connection. Think about your…. _experiences,_ and the spell will do the rest."

"What is happening, Your Greatness?" Miss Cackle asked confused.

Mildred ignored the Headmistress as she looked at Ethel before she took the blonde girl's hand, and nodded before they both closed their eyes just as the Great Wizard unleashed the spell. Both girls stiffened as a connection between them made entirely of magic was formed and they were locked into place. Above the girls' heads, a cloud formed. Miss Hardbroom and Miss Cackle, and all the people in the hall familiar with the tradition of using the Mists of Time understood immediately, but what they saw blew their minds.

They saw everything.

They watched as Mildred and Ethel suddenly heard the drumbeats of the game before they were summoned to the room Jumanji was in, and they both started playing the game. Everyone screamed in shock when they saw the two girls being sucked into the game and into the twisted reality of Jumanji.

Both witches knew it would take forever to show them the entirety of their time in Jumanji, so they decided through their connection to show them the most important and scariest of their memories of their time in Jumanji.

They saw the girl's first few days in the jungle - their arrival, Ethel going off in a strop which nearly got the pair of them killed, how their magic didn't seem to work no matter who tried to use a spell. The students watched as the two girls started, grudgingly at first, to work together since they were both trying to survive. They were terrified when Van Pelt began hunting them through the jungle, yelling taunts at them, while they both started to use homemade broomsticks which fell apart very quickly.

It seemed to take an eternity before the students and teachers watched as Ethel and Mildred both formed a bond in the twisted reality where the people and animals in Jumanji were twisted, more monstrous representations of the animals that existed within the real world. They watched as Mildred and Ethel both tried - and failed - to pass through the Barrier before they gave up, although they both worked together to survive in this place.

And then they saw the arrival of Bella and Miranda, two Cackles students from the future, both of whom told of an alternative timeline where Cackles had assumed Mildred and Ethel had both run away, among other popular theories. (Esmerelda cried with shock when she found out Bella was, in fact, her own daughter.)

Mildred and Ethel shared their last few days in Jumanji; their crossing of the river, being hunted, their time with the Headhunters, passing through the Barrier before their broomsticks failed.

Everyone was surprised when Mildred came up with the theory Jumanji was alive, though no-one knew if the game truly was alive by that point even if they had to agree it certainly seemed like that. They saw the recovery of the first token, even if the stampede and the fall into the cave full of spiders made them all scream with terror, and they saw how Mildred was frustrated with the game playing games with them.

They saw the separation of the group, how Mildred was taken by that tribe who had the Elephant token while Ethel was with the younger girls, and how they had opted to go for the peak. To their horror, they heard what the tribe had _planned_ for Mildred, but they watched with surprise as Mildred, who they knew would never go this far, set fire to the village and swipe the token.

They watched as the group reunited before they crossed the swamp (Esmerelda and Sybil, who were both horrified by what their sister had endured, had to laugh when they saw how Ethel had to be stopped from snoring to not attract attention from the massive crocodiles and the hippos during the night; Sybil was the most frightened, and the younger Hallow girl had to cling to her friends to reassure herself), though they were terrified of the hippo attack before they reached the shore.

When the quartet raced the earthquake, Sybil had to bite her lips to stop herself from cheering the quartet on towards the massive Cat's Head to place the tokens inside.

But everyone cheered when Van Pelt was dealt with and Ethel called the name of the game and the two girls were returned to their home time. Once it was over, the Great Wizard canceled the spell holding Mildred and Ethel together, and the cloud disappeared.

Ethel opened her eyes first and she looked at Mildred with concern before she sent a look of thanks to the Wizard before Mildred woke up.

"No-one knows where Jumanji came from," the Great Wizard announced once he was sure the two witches on the stage were alright. "But its existence has gone on long enough. I myself and a dear friend of mine were trapped in the game for nearly thirty years. Mildred and Ethel were both trapped in the game themselves for that length of time. I don't know how many more people have been trapped inside; when myself and Peter, that's my friend, were trapped in the game, we came across a number of signs of other people like ourselves who had been trapped in there; a hair comb, a ring, a watch, sometimes we would even find names, even diary entries carved on trees in the jungle. Some of them went back centuries."

No-one was particularly surprised. In the memory they had seen Mildred and Ethel find similar signs more than once. The two witches had made sure to show those particular memories to emphasise just how dangerous the game was, and how many people had been in there.

"That is why I am going to take this game to the Morgana Vaults," the Great Wizard went on, ignoring the chatter since it was _rare_ for anyone to mention them, never mind take something to them. "The game is too dangerous to be around, especially inside a school."

Mildred and Ethel glanced at each other. They might not have expected the Great Wizard to take this step, but they were relieved he had and they could even understand the reasoning for it.

The Great Wizard had sent a message to the school about Jumanji. With a bit of luck, the news would be passed on so if anything happened and the people running the vaults made some stupid mistake which would free the game, or the game would free itself, no-one would play it.

* * *

"I still can't believe you spent thirty years in that game," Enid was saying to Mildred later on before curfew was due to start while she, Mildred, and Maud sat with the Hallow sisters. It wasn't a problem there since Esmerelda and Sybil had never gone out of their way to give them the same problems Ethel had when she had been younger, although the middle Hallow sister had lashed out frequently because she had not seen any other way to act.

Mildred said nothing, she didn't know if she could believe it herself given from their current perspective, it seemed she and Ethel had shared the same dream.

"You saw it," Ethel said, holding onto her sisters.

"I know, but I still can't believe it."

"I can't believe you met your niece and she hadn't been born yet," Esmerelda commented as she tightly held onto Ethel.

Sybil nodded. "Yeah, she must have been terrified. I was too when I saw those memories."

"Did we see all of what happened?" Maud asked hesitantly, her expression saying she had already guessed the answer.

Mildred and Ethel shared a look, both of them thinking about everything they hadn't shown everyone. They had only shown the most pivotal moments of their time in Jumanji, they still had so many others.

"No," Mildred replied honestly.

"Do you think Miranda and Bella will come to Cackles in the future?" Sybil piped up, looking questioningly at her elder sister.

Esmerelda didn't have answer for her. "Bella…is a good name for a daughter, don't you think?" she smiled.

"I don't see any reason why they shouldn't exist in the future," Mildred shrugged. "Jumanji did seem to have some power over time itself. It created a reality where everyone thought we'd run away, and it returned us to the time we'd left, so maybe Bella and Miranda will appear in the future."

"I hope so," Esmerelda said softly.

Enid looked at Maud (Mildred inwardly sighed, she knew the new dynamic of her friendship with Ethel would throw things off between them, but that was their problem; if they caused problems like when Maud had when Enid had first come to the school, she would react badly. She wasn't going to turn her back and ignore it until it overwhelmed her like it had before) and then back at Mildred. "Okay, its time for us to go. Curfew must be starting soon."

"Yeah," Mildred nodded.

"We know," Ethel shrugged.

"Don't you care?" Maud asked.

"Not really," Mildred replied. "You've got to understand, Maud; Ethel and I are mentally older than all the students in the school. We have been threatened by tribes, by an insane hunter who hunted us down and tried to kill us hundreds of times."

Enid shrugged. "I think I can see the point."

Mildred shared another look with Ethel. Neither girl knew what the future held, but they both sincerely hoped their experiences inside Jumanji meant they didn't suddenly go back to how they had been before.

Only time would tell.


End file.
